ACOs Multiply As Medicare Announces 27 New Ones
A key provision of the health law supports the creation of organizations intended to improve quality of care and to restrain rising costs.
Has The Saturation Point For Under-26 Coverage Been Reached?
Has one of the health law’s most popular benefits – the provision that allows children to stay on their parents’ insurance up to age 26 – hit a plateau? A recent survey suggests this might be case. According to a Gallup poll released last week, the uninsured rate among 18- to 25-year-olds has leveled off around 24 percent […]
Obama Ties Women’s Economic Future To Health Law
President Barack Obama brought together Friday two of his biggest campaign issues, health care and the economy, in an appeal to women voters, who have favored the president over GOP rivals in recent polls. During remarks at a White House forum on women and the economy, Obama described how provisions of the 2010 health law […]
Study: Chemo Costs Less In Doctors’ Offices
Chemotherapy costs significantly more at a hospital than at a physician’s office, and patients might have decreased access to the cheaper option, according to reports out this week. The first report, by Avalere Health, found that chemotherapy received in a hospital outpatient setting costs, on average, 24 percent more than when received at a physician’s […]
Berwick Still Looking Ahead, On The Bright Side
Donald Berwick said he didn’t want to focus on the fate of the 2010 federal health law, but eventually the physician and former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services addressed the elephant in the room. “I think this law will stand; it’ll be hard to take away,” Berwick said Monday during his […]
New Rule Cuts Student Health Plans Temporary Breaks
Beginning next school year, student health insurance will fall in line with many of the requirements established under the 2010 health law – with some temporary exceptions announced Friday in new rules released by the Obama administration Student insurers and higher education groups had been waiting for months on the final set of rules from […]
Delayed Release Of Student Health Plan Rule Scrambles Financial Aid Calculations
This long-awaited regulation — designed to boost benefits offered by student health insurance plans — could affect plan costs and, in some instances, the cost of attending college.
Wash. Bill Mandating Abortion Coverage Fails To Reach Vote
In yet another hurdle for a bill that would require insurers to provide abortion coverage, advocates were not able to get a floor vote in the Washington state Senate for the Reproductive Parity Act. But, according to the bill’s proponents, it isn’t entirely off the table yet. Under the bill, public and private insurers that offer health […]
Wash. Senate Nears Vote To Require Abortion Coverage
While lawmakers in Washington clash over birth control, lawmakers in Washington state are close to passing a first-of-its-kind law that would require insurers to cover abortion services. If passed, the Reproductive Parity Act would make the Evergreen State the first in the country to require public and private insurers to cover abortion if the plan covers […]
Electronic Health Records Program Advances to ‘Stage 2’
It’s time to take electronic health records to the next level. Federal officials on Thursday released their second-stage guidelines for “meaningful use” of electronic records, which advocates say have the potential to reduce medical errors and streamline care. The proposed rules require doctors and hospitals to significantly step up their usage, as well as better […]
Council Publishes Plan For Alzheimer’s Research, Care
Federal officials have taken another step toward their goal of better treatment for and even prevention of Alzheimer’s disease by 2025. On Wednesday, an advisory council convened by the Obama administration released a fleshed-out, draft version of its national plan to address Alzheimer’s. Much of the plan was already known from the draft framework published […]
Coakley v. Cuccinelli: Attorneys General Debate The Health Law
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1 State attorneys general Martha Coakley and Ken Cuccinelli won’t be arguing the constitutionality of the 2010 health law before the Supreme Court in late March, but they brought their opposing cases before the National Press Club in Washington on Thursday.
Alzheimer’s Research Gets Funding Boost
The Obama administration announced plans Tuesday for a two-year, $156 million cash infusion for Alzheimer’s research and care. The money will help solidify a still-developing national plan to better treat and even prevent the illness by 2025. Effective immediately, the National Institutes of Health will redirect $50 million of its fiscal year 2012 budget toward […]
Health Law Challenge Gets A Dry Run At Georgetown Law
If a healthy, wealthy young man lives in a hut out in the American wilderness, should he have to buy health insurance? That was one of many questions brought up Wednesday, when the Georgetown University law school held a mock version of the upcoming oral arguments for the Supreme Court’s consideration of the 2010 health […]
Health Law Is A Family Affair For CMS’ Tavenner
Marilyn Tavenner, the president’s nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, was already hoarse when she began her speech at the Care Innovation Summit in Washington D.C. today. However, that did not stop Tavenner, the agency’s acting administrator, from delivering a laundry list of the 2010 health law’s benefits and achievements, including a particularly personal one. An estimated […]
The KHN Conversation: ‘Innovation’ Advisors On Achieving CMS’ Triple Aim
In advance of their first Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services meeting next week, four of the newly named innovation advisors talked with KHN’s Christian Torres.
Washington State Bill Would Require Abortion Coverage
“Personhood” has dominated the abortion debate in recent months, highlighted by the failure of a high-profile constitutional amendment in Mississippi. And while abortion rights advocates in several states continue to defend against other bills that would define an embryo or fetus as a person, advocates in Washington state are taking the offensive. Democratic members of […]
32 ‘Pioneers’ Selected To Test New Health Care Model For Seniors
Thirty-two groups were named Monday to test a new health care model, called for in the health care law, which is designed to improve care for seniors while reducing costs. The groups, which range from Boston-based Partners Healthcare, the largest health care provider in Massachusetts, to the doctor-led Healthcare Partners of southern Nevada, were selected […]
HHS: 2.5 Million Young Adults Now Covered, Exceeding Projections
An estimated 2.5 million young adults have gained health insurance coverage since the 2010 health law took effect, according to a new government survey – a finding the Obama administration is embracing as it continues efforts to communicate the health’s law’s benefits, even as the public’s opinion about the law remains mixed. The number is […]
Fund To Help Cover Early Retirees Nearly Out of Money
A $5 billion fund that helped cover health insurance for more than five million early retirees will stop taking claims for expenses incurred after Dec. 31 because it is running out of money, according to a notice Friday in the Federal Register. The funds were used to reimburse employers who subsidize health insurance for early retirees, ages 55 to […]
