Kaiser: Moderate premiums could open doors to more cost-cutting - Articles - Employee B... - 0 views
HEALTH REFORM: Expect Pluses, Minuses for Those With Job-Based Coverage - iVillage - 0 views
-
Beginning in 2014, for instance, the reform package prohibits employer-sponsored health plans from excluding people from coverage based on pre-existing health conditions
-
It also makes larger employers responsible for offering medical coverage. Beginning Jan. 1, 2015, businesses with more than 50 workers must offer health insurance to full-time workers and dependents or pay penalties.
-
annual limits will be banned completely in 2014.
- ...17 more annotations...
-
Experts say smaller companies that employ 50 or more workers and currently provide health insurance may drop coverage because it would be cheaper to pay fines than maintain coverage for all of their workers. Most large employers (with more than 1,000 employees) remain committed to providing health benefits for the next five years, according to an employer survey by Towers Watson/National Business Group on Health. But just 26 percent are confident that they will be offering health-care benefits a decade from now. Meanwhile, a number of large employers are eyeing private health insurance exchanges as a way to continue providing job-based coverage while controlling spending on health benefits. Much like the public exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, private exchanges represent a new way for employees and families to shop for group health coverage and other benefits. Instead of offering a limited number of health plans, the employer would give workers a set amount of money to buy their own coverage. Kaiser, who works in Gallagher Benefit Services' Mount Laurel, N.J., office, anticipates a slow migration toward private exchanges. "I don't think it's going to be a mass disruption of employer-sponsored plans where they all go, 'I'm out of the game,'" he said. More information The University of California, Berkeley Labor Center, has summarized provisions of the Affordable Care Act affecting employer-sponsored insurance.
Despite Additional Dollars, Texas Doc Shortage Is Hard to Fix - Kaiser Health News - 0 views
-
Wright and Blackwell said Texas should encourage more physicians to go into primary care in rural areas by expanding the loan repayment program, which offers some debt relief to doctors who do so.
FAQ On ACOs: Accountable Care Organizations, Explained - Kaiser Health News - 0 views
Consumers Expecting Free 'Preventive' Care Sometimes Surprised By Charges - Kaiser Heal... - 0 views
Survey: Big Business May Shift Retirees, Part-Timers To Insurance Exchanges - Kaiser He... - 0 views
Complex Personal Issues May Cloud Decisions About Buying Insurance - Kaiser Health News - 0 views
States experimenting to lower health care costs - 0 views
-
"Look at any of the long-term projections for the federal budget or for state budgets," said Alan Weil, executive director of the National Academy for State Health Policy. "If we don't bring down health care costs, we're either going to be paying a whole lot more in taxes or we're going to stop spending money on other things we care about."
-
"It has to end eventually," said Larry Levitt, senior vice president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, "because we can't have an economy driven entirely by health care."
Obamacare, but by Any Other Name - WSJ.com - 0 views
-
A poll released this week by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation found that 51% of Americans say they don't understand how the health law affects them. More Americans disapprove of the law—42% to 37%—than favor it, according to the poll.
Tips For New Obamacare Coverage: Stay In Network, Avoid Out-Of-Pocket Costs - Kaiser He... - 0 views
Warning: Opting Out Of Your Insurance Plan's Provider Network Is Risky - Kaiser Health ... - 0 views
'Wildfire' Growth Of Freestanding ERs Raises Concerns About Cost - Kaiser Health News - 0 views
-
Several hospital chains are driving the boom – including HCA Inc., which will open its seventh ER later this year in Florida, and Wake Med Health and Hospitals, which will add its fourth next month in the Raleigh, N.C., metro area. They regard the facilities as a way to expand into new markets, generate admissions to their hospital and reduce crowding at their hospital-based ERs.
-
reater Houston has 150 emergency rooms — twice the number as greater Miami -- even though its population is only slightly bigger, according to a KHN analysis.
-
While the ERs charge insurers double or triple the amount per patient as an urgent care center or doctor's office, patients use them for routine care that could be provided in less costly settings, Ho says. That is the case with standard ERs as well. Yet, insured patients have little incentive to drive past the more expensive, freestanding ERs because their co-payment is only $50 or $100, just modestly more than what it might cost for a visit to an urgent care center or doctor’s office. Their insurers pay the balance generally.
- ...3 more annotations...
Kentucky's Rush Into Medicaid Managed Care: A Cautionary Tale For Other States - Kaiser... - 0 views
In Addition To Premium Credits, Health Law Offers Some Consumers Help Paying Deductible... - 0 views
Walgreens Becomes 1st Retail Chain To Diagnose, Treat Chronic Conditions - Kaiser Healt... - 0 views
-
xpanding services to diagnosis and treatment of chronic conditions that affect millions of Americans is a logical step, because the clinics can not only grow their own business, but also partner with hospitals and doctors’ groups to gain new customers, said Ronald L. Hammerle, president of Health Resources, a Florida consulting firm.
Medicare Announces Plans To Accelerate Linking Doctor Pay To Quality - Kaiser Health News - 0 views
-
The current system, researchers say, financially encourages doctors to do more procedures and is one of the reasons health costs have escalated. The health law required Medicare to gradually factor in quality into payments for hospitals, nursing homes, physicians and most medical providers.
-
Medicare had already decided that large physician groups -- those with 100 or more doctors, nurses, social workers or other health professionals -- will gain or lose as much as 1 percent of their pay starting in 2015. Those incentives would double to 2 percent the following year under draft regulations Medicare released this month. The proposal also would phase mid-sized physicians groups—those with between 10 and 99 health professionals—into the program in 2016 instead of in 2017. While they would be eligible for bonuses up to 2 percent, they would be shielded from any penalties for that first year.