AMA Shut Out of Medicare Talks
February 28th 2008The quick fix on the Medicare fee cutbacks that the US Congress passed late last year is due to end on July 1, when a 10% cut will be implemented unless the lawmakers act again. But when the US Senate Finance Committee, which is crafting a Medicare package, sits down to
Rating Health Insurers' Efficiency
January 1st 1970Slow pay and no pay. Those are two of the most common complaints that doctors have about insurance carriers. They take too long to pay, they bounce too many claims back to be resubmitted, and they deny claims that doctors think should be paid. But some health insurers do a better job than others.
BP Patients Do Better with Online Help
January 1st 1970Medication, education, plus a dose of lifestyle changes like diet and exercise. That is pretty much the standard treatment for hypertension. But a recent study published in JAMA shows that patients with uncontrolled high blood pressure can do better with blood pressure self-monitoring and regular contact with a healthcare provider through the Internet—and they do it with fewer doctor visits.
Physicians Find Opportunities in Growth of Urgent Care Centers
January 1st 1970“I’m not sure if a lot of the phenomenality of [the growth] is due to recognition more than explosive, exponential growth,” says Lou Ellen Horwitz, executive director of the Chicago-based Urgent Care Association of America. “Definitely, there is growth. We probably see a new one opening up every week. But prior to people paying attention, there may have been one opening every other week, but it wasn’t on the radar.”
Health Net Members Get Mega-Dollar Settlement
January 1st 1970A US District Court judge in New Jersey has approved a $255 million settlement in a class-action suit that involved members of California-based Health Net who used out-of-network physicians. The suit alleged that members who received care from out-of-network doctors and healthcare facilities got less money than they should have because the health insurer used an “invalid” database to determine reimbursement amounts. Under the settlement, Health Net will pay $215 million to the plaintiffs and make another $40 million worth of business practice changes.
Integration Puts Physician Practices at Busy Intersections
January 1st 1970Webster’s dictionary defines ‘integration’ as “an act or instance of combining into an integral whole.” As the sports world has taught us many times over, the “whole” is often greater than the sum of the parts. It’s a simple concept, whether we’re talking sports or business. And yet when it comes to integrating healthcare services, there has been resistance to recognizing the inherent benefits.
For Better, for Worse�and for Health Insurance
January 1st 1970According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 7% of Americans surveyed said that they or someone in their household had married within the past year to get access to their spouse�s health insurance policy. Unlike a �green card� marriage, however, where two strangers marry so that one can stay in the country legally, health insurance unions are mostly between two people who have been in a long-term relationship. Many never intended to marry or didn�t plan on getting married so soon, until health circumstances made marriage an almost inevitable fiscal choice.