The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
The Department of Health and Human Services has granted approximately 30 waivers to employers, insurers and unions that will allow them to offer limited benefit, or “mini-med,” health insurance plans.
The Department of Health and Human Services has granted approximately 30 waivers to employers, insurers and unions that will allow them to offer limited benefit, or “mini-med,” health insurance plans.
It is no doubt useful politically for the administration to set up the private health insurance industry as its foil in this struggle. Many Americans have low regard for insurance companies. But this is largely a diversionary tactic on the part of [HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius].
From medical device makers to pharmacists to labor unions, a host of organizations want to ensure that accountable care organizations expand their business and influence.
Mark Rukavina of The Access Project and Neil Trautwein of the National Retail Federation discuss the Obama administration’s relaxation of the health law’s requirements for insurance plans for some employers.
Republicans think they have a winning issue in health care reform, calling for its repeal and slamming the new law as big government gone haywire-even before most of its provisions have taken effect. A new poll suggests it’s not so clear-cut, and some Democrats seem to agree.
A number of interest groups, state officials and ordinary citizens are seeking to have the health care law struck down in federal court, and action is heating up this week.
It will take years to make the law’s most important changes. But by the time they are in place, if all goes well, most Americans truly will be better off. The early stages are encouraging.
The agencies that oversee doctors and hospitals promised they will give unified guidance on how medical providers can form “accountable care organizations” without violating antitrust regulations. ACOs are a key part of the new health law.
When it comes to Medicare, where it is everybody’s money and overpriced technologies are a significant factor undermining the senior citizen health care program’s long-term financial viability, paying for products that don’t deliver better is out.
Insurance coverage of mental illness and addiction problems often is skimpier than for physical illness. But that is changing with the mental health parity law that took effect earlier this year and the new health overhaul.
An Institute of Medicine report says nurses should take on a larger role in providing health care and calls for removal of government restrictions, which doctors have repeatedly opposed.
The Obama administration has touted ACOs as a key way that the new health law will help providers work more closely together to lower health costs and improve patient care. But doctors and hospitals are worried about inadvertently violating antitrust and anti-fraud laws. Insurers fear the new doctor-hospital entities could boost health care prices. Industry and government officials are meeting Tuesday to deal with the concerns.
As the November elections near, more Democrats appear to be campaigning on the health care law, touting a package of consumer protections that went into effect for plan years starting after Sept. 23.
As the November elections near, more Democrats appear to be campaigning on the health care law, touting a package of consumer protections that went into effect for plan years starting after Sept. 23.
While the federal government is investing heavily in anti-fraud efforts, private insurers should be given incentives to do the same.
Healthcare.gov, the website created by the new health law to be a one-stop consumer resource, today unveiled detailed cost and benefits information about health plans available in the individual insurance market.
Doctors could save lives by prescribing cheap beta blockers to surgery patients at risk of heart attacks.
The recession’s double whammy – less money and more need – is leaving states with reduced tax revenues and increasing numbers of people enrolling in the federal-state health care program for the poor.
The development of this draft rule is not a contest with winners and losers, but an effort to create a framework to press insurers to spend less money on bureaucracy and more on health care in a way that benefits consumers and keeps insurance markets viable.
