Health Law May Accelerate Growth In Urgent Care Centers
Crowded emergency rooms and a lack of primary care doctors have fueled recent expansions. But the drive to lower costs is also a factor and could bring more customers under the overhaul.
Study: Florida Leads Nation In Getting More Kids Insured
Florida leads the nation in reducing the number and rate of uninsured children, according to a study released Tuesday. From 2008 to 2010, the number of uninsured children in Florida fell by more than 160,000 to 506,934, says the report by researchers at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families. The state’s rate of […]
Tavenner To Replace Berwick At CMS Helm
President Barack Obama chose Marilyn Tavenner, a nurse and former hospital executive, to run the agency overseeing Medicare and Medicaid.
Super Committee Urged To Alter Coverage For Some Low-Income Medicare Beneficiaries
State Medicaid directors and health insurers press panel to move people who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid into private health plans for more efficient care.
Medicare will cut payment rates to home health agencies by 2.3 percent in 2012 — the sixth consecutive annual decrease in fees to the industry. The decision, which will lop off an estimated $430 million from the program next year, follows concerns by a congressional advisory panel that the agencies are overpaid. Home health advocates […]
States Are Limiting Medicaid Hospital Coverage In Search For Savings
Hospitals say the burden of cost-cutting falls on them because they’ll be stuck with the bill for care if Medicaid refuses to pay.
State Medicaid Spending Skyrockets
KHN staff writer Phil Galewitz reports that the combination of rising enrollments and the end of federal stimulus funds is forcing a huge spike in state spending on Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor.
Nixon’s HMOs Hold Lessons For Obama’s ACOs
The Obama administration acknowledges its highly touted accountable care organization program will have a modest early impact on the U.S. health system — with only 4 percent of Medicare beneficiaries affected by 2015 Perhaps the Obama White House is taking a lesson from the last time a U.S. president kicked off a major new program designed […]
HHS Releases Final Regulations For ACOs
KHN staff writers Jenny Gold and Phil Galewitz report on the new rule, which will make it easier for health care providers to participate in the new models of delivering health care.
No Health Help for NGA Dues Shirkers
The National Governors Association is a bit of a misnomer these days. Sure, it still represents the interests of governors from all 50 states, but it no longer provides “technical assistance” to four states that have failed to pay their annual dues. Those states — all of which have Republican governors — are Florida, Texas, Idaho and […]
16 States Fall Short On Health Plan Appeal Systems
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia don’t meet new requirements under the federal health law for consumers to appeal health plans’ decisions to a third party, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. As a result, by 2012, these states will have to contract with three “independent review organizations” to handle consumers’ […]
Florida Readies Its Own Health Insurance Exchange
But it’s unlike the online marketplace required by the federal health law and draws only tepid support from health plans and insurance agents.
Advisory Panel Says Essential Health Benefits Package Must Be Affordable
The Department of Health and Human Services now must decide what benefits should be required in policies sold through insurance exchanges beginning in 2014.
Administration Scales Back Expansion Of Community Health Centers
Health centers fear they won’t be able to expand fast enough to meet the growing demand from the current uninsured and the influx of people to Medicaid in 2014.
When the potato lobby speaks, it always puts its best spuds forward. Today, at a National Press Club lunchtime briefing to promote the nutritional value of the vegetable, that meant a full bar of baked potatoes, french fries (baked, not fried) and all the requiste trimmings — sour cream, cheddar cheese, chopped tomatoes, spinach and broccoli. Yes, according […]
Forget HMOs And ACOs, Oregon Is Pushing CCOs To Save Medicaid
Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat, wants to prove his state can contain soaring Medicaid costs without reducing services to recipients or slashing fees to doctors and hospitals. And when he’s done, he wants to apply this same strategy to saving Medicare. Kitzhaber is in Washington this week meeting with top federal health officials about his state’s […]
Florida CHIP Program ‘Treading Water’
Despite the tough economy, Florida’s Children’s Health Insurance Program added just 2,000 children in the year ended June 30, for a growth rate of less than 1 percent. Among school-age kids, the program added just 700 children. Before last year, the Florida CHIP progam was growing by about 8 percent a year. It now has about […]
Parents Fear Health Law Could Derail Autism Coverage
As federal officials draw up their list of requirements for essential health benefits under the overhaul, it’s not clear whether they will include treatment mandates passed by many states.
Survey: ‘Super Committee’ Has Yet To Earn Americans’ Trust
Americans have little faith the bipartisan congressional “super committee” will reduce the federal deficit, according to a survey released Friday. Sixty-two percent of respondents said they either trust the super committee “just a little” or “not at all” to make the right recommendations to cut the deficit, according to the poll by the Kaiser Family […]
Nearly 1 Million Young Adults Get Insurance Under Health Law
Nearly 1 million young adults have gained health coverage this year following the passage of the health overhaul law, which lets them stay on their parents’ insurance up to age 26, according to a federal report released today. The report’s findings show the number of people getting coverage is running ahead of the administration’s estimate […]
