Posts Tagged ‘Health Care’
Report Looks At Autoworker Health Care For Spending Variation Clues
February 14th, 2012
A new report looks at autoworker health care claims to find clues as to why spending varies by region and finds that hospital price variation made up one-third of the difference.
Kaiser Health News: Autoworkers’ Health Claims Offer Clues To Regional Spending Variations Why does health care cost more in some areas of the country than others? It’s a question researchers have struggled with for decades, because the potential answers — unnecessary surgeries, generally bad health of patients or high prices charged by providers — each carry different prescriptions for how to hold down medical costs. Now a
Tags: Autoworker Health, Autoworker Health Care, Clues, Health Care
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21 States Support Missouri Health Care Reform Challenge
July 19th, 2011
Nearly two dozen states are in support of a challenge to the health care reform law presented by Missouri Lieutenant Governor Peter Kinder. The states all believe the law, passed in March 2010, is unconstitutional because it requires people to purchase health insurance.
States Ask for Appeal to Previous Lawsuit
Shortly after health care reform was signed into law, Missouri began to fight what it believed was the unconstitutionality of requiring a person to purchase health insurance. In May 2010, the Missouri House of Representatives allowed residents and employers vote on their right to decline coverage.
Then in July, Kinder and six state residents sued U.S. of
Tags: Care Reform, Challenge, Health Care, Health Care Reform
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Employers Plan to Ask Workers to Absorb More Health Care Costs in 2012
June 25th, 2011
A new study conducted by consulting firm PwC revealed that employers will ask workers to absorb rising health care costs by having them pay higher health insurance deductibles in 2012. This news comes only days after a separate study conducted by Milliman Inc. found that employee contributions in employer-sponsored plans have reached an all-time high.
Percentage of Companies Asking for Help Expected to Grow
According to PwC, the percentage of companies that ask their workers to pay deductibles (the annual amount a patient pays out of pocket for care before the insurance company will begin coverage) has grown steadily over the past several years.
Tags: 2012, Care Costs, Health Care, Health Care Costs
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Health Care Spending Caps Will Protect Washington Families From Catastrophic Medical Expenses
February 9th, 2011
Hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians currently face the threat of catastrophic family health care expenses from serious, unexpected injuries or illnesses, such as accidents, sports injuries, cancer, diabetes, and other diseases. A new cap on out-of-pocket expenses, a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, will help those families protect both their health and their budgets.
Although the spending caps go into effect in 2014, the consumer health group Families USA asked The Lewin Group, a health care policy research and management consulting firm, to look at the impact of the caps on Washington families as if the caps were going into effect in 2011. Read full post…
Tags: Expenses, Health Care
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New State Scorecard On Children’s Health Care Finds Wide Geographic Disparities
February 4th, 2011
Two years after the reauthorization and expansion of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), a new Commonwealth Fund state-by-state scorecard evaluating how the health care system is working for children finds that federal and state action on behalf of children has helped preserve, and even expand, health coverage for this group, despite the severe recession. Yet wide differences persist among states when it comes to health insurance coverage, affordability of health care for families, children’s receipt of preventive care and treatment, and the opportunity for children to lead healthy lives. Read full post…
Tags: Care, Health Care, State Scorecard
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Health Care Reform Prepares for Attacks as the Republicans Take the House
January 9th, 2011
On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed legislation that overhauled Americas health care system. The new law, which is also known as the Affordable Care Act, enacts comprehensive health insurance reform that will be rolled out in the United States over the next four years with most of the major changes taking place by 2014.
Health care reform guarantees access to medical insurance for tens of millions of Americans who previously had no health insurance. But, passing the new law was not without bumps along the road; not a single Republican member of Congress voted for the final version of the health care bill.
Tags: Care, Health Care
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Fight for Health Care Reform to Continue Into 2012
December 16th, 2010
The fight to implement health care reform is in for a fight into at least 2012 after a federal district judge in Richmond, Va. ruled against one provision of the law on Monday. The Justice Department plans to appeal the decision, which states Congress lacks the authority to compel individuals to carry health coverage. This means it will likely reach the Supreme Court sometime before the presidential election.
The New Challenge to Health Care Reform
This challenge to the health care reform law is nothing new for the government. Within minutes of signing reform into law, 14 states sued, calling the law unconstitutional as the newest judge cited on Monday.
Many state attorney generals and governors simply don’t like the idea of forcing residents to purchase health insurance. T
Tags: 2012, Care Reform, Health Care, Health Care Reform
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ACOs to Reduce Costs and Improve Health Care
November 27th, 2010
Health care professionals have recently taken on a new entity called an accountable care organization (ACO) to make overall improvements to the health care industry. This entity is being created in various cities among groups of local doctors and hospitals with the hopes that it will make health care more affordable.
ACOs Spurred by Health Overhaul Law
Hospitals and doctors around the country have begun to create ACOs with the idea that they would provide more efficient health care at reduced costs. The idea came from incentives handed out with the federal health overhaul law.
Tags: Care, Health Care
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