In Pursuit Of Patient Satisfaction, Hospitals Update The Hated Hospital Gown
Redesigning and replacing hospital gowns is one example of efforts by hospitals and health systems to enhance the patient experience.
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Caught In The Middle
Kairis Chiaji from Sacramento, California, says it was difficult to afford health insurance before the Affordable Care Act on her self-employed income as a birth coach. The 43-year-old experienced a mix up with her application through Covered California that delayed her enrollment.
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Hoping To Live, These Doctors Want A Choice In How They Die
In a California lawsuit seeking to allow doctors to prescribe lethal medications at patients’ request, two plaintiffs are physicians with serious illnesses. Both want the option of choosing to end their lives.
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Policy Shift By Nation’s Largest Insurer Could Leave Some With Unexpected Bills
UnitedHealthcare is no longer routinely paying for out-of-network emergency room physicians and other specialists even when they work for hospitals in the insurer’s network.
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Health On The Hill: No Senate ‘Doc Fix’ Vote Before Recess. Will Break Hurt Chances?
After a decade of short term fixes, the House passed legislation to replace Medicare’s troubled Sustainable Growth Rate, or SGR, and replace it with an alternative doctor payment formula. Kaiser Health News’ Mary Agnes Carey and Politico Pro’s Jennifer Haberkorn discuss what’s next for the bill when the Senate returns from recess next month.
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Many People Entitled To Hefty Subsidies Still Opt Against Coverage
A study by health consultant Avalere finds that three-quarters of those eligible for the highest levels of premium help enrolled in marketplace plans, but many others with only slightly higher incomes did not.
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Some Face A Big Bill From Medi-Cal — After They Die
California is one of the few states that charge the estates of deceased Medicaid beneficiaries for the cost of their health coverage. A bill is moving through the state legislature to stop the practice.
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House Approves Permanent Fix For Medicare Doctor Payments
For more than a decade, doctors who treat Medicare patients have been threatened with pay cuts due to a faulty formula of how doctors are reimbursed. But in a rare bipartisan agreement, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a deal to permanently end the problem and reward quality of care, not quantity.
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Obamacare Cash Helps Pay Texas’ Medicaid Bill
A provision of the Affordable Care Act that covers some Medicaid administrative costs will help close a $338 million gap in the state’s Medicaid budget, even though Texas has declined to expand the health program for the poor.
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High-Deductible Plans Bring Lower Costs Now, But Will They Bring Pricey Problems?
Companies that introduced these plans experienced overall savings in the first three years, according to a new study.
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Texas Bill Would Prohibit Doctors From Asking About Guns
A Texas lawmaker, also a surgeon, wants to ensure doctors ‘have the right not to ask’ about gun ownership and is pushing a bill to do just that.
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Even In Female Dominated Nursing, Men Earn More
Nurses who are men make nearly $7,700 a year more than female nurses in outpatient settings and nearly $3,900 more annually in hospitals, a study finds.
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It’s Obamacare’s First Tax Season. Can The IRS Handle It?
Delayed refunds, mistakes feared as an understaffed IRS confronts the complexities of the Affordable Care Act.
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Tax-Time Tribulations: Health Law Complicates Filing Season For Many
The financial consequences of not getting insurance and the effort to reconcile premium subsidies with income are new dynamics in the current tax season.
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Errors Can Turn Affordable Care Benefits To Customer Torment
Pairing federal payments with private insurance brings benefits to many but creates dueling bureaucracies for some customers caught between them.
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Depression, Related Ailments Take Their Toll On The Workplace, Study Finds
A new report says the costs associated with major depressive disorder and other related conditions affect businesses’ bottom lines.
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Is Arkansas’ ‘Private Option’ Medicaid Expansion A Solution For Other Red States?
Several GOP-led states are taking note of Arkansas’ market-based approach to Medicaid expansion, but questions remain about its long-term costs and effectiveness.
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Health Law Brings No Drop In Insurance Enrollment At Work, Study Finds
A survey by benefits consultant Mercer finds that most large employers already met the law’s requirement to provide coverage to those who work 30 hours or more.
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Battle Over Dementia Drug Swap Has Big Stakes For Drugmakers, Consumers
A court ruling about Actavis’s strategy to switch consumers from its top-selling dementia drug, which will lose patent protection this summer, to a newer, patent-protected drug, may define how far drugmakers can go to protect profits from generic rivals.
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Most Americans Unaware Obamacare Subsidies Are At Risk
When informed about the challenge before the high court, about two-thirds said that lawmakers should restore subsidies if the justices strike them down.
