The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
The health overhaul prohibits new insurance plans from charging higher copayments or coinsurance amounts for out-of-network emergency services or from imposing other coverage limitations that wouldn’t apply to in-network care.
The battle over whether the new federally-funded program to help people with pre-existing health conditions will pay for abortions just won’t go away.
This week, news outlets covered the Obama administration as it began implementing parts of the new health law and also unveiled a national HIV/AIDS strategy. And, Capitol Hill is still reacting to the president’s recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick to head the agency overseeing Medicare and Medicaid.
The administration is getting an earful from abortion rights groups for making sure that states getting federal funds to run insurance programs for people with pre-exisitng conditions don’t cover elective abortions.
Obese employees cost U.S. private employers an estimated $45 billion a year in medical expenditures and work loss, according to figures from the Conference Board. And employers are taking note, now more than ever.
Over the last five years, Texas physicians wrote Medicaid patients nearly 3.4 million prescriptions for antipsychotics.
The health overhaul does establish new national requirements that insurers must meet. To help coordinate state regulatory efforts, health reform looks to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Panel’s recommendations on preventive care will determine which services are covered fully by insurance. That could make it a political lightning rod for lobbyists and disease advocates and conflict with its tradition of scholarly dedication to the science of randomized medical trials.
Abortion opponents say the administration is already breaking the promise it made as part of the new health law not to fund elective abortions.
Patients typically wait 20 minutes or more to see the doctor, the AMA says. But a new scheduling system that allows patients to see the doctor on the day they call for an appointment has surprising success in cutting that delay.
Dr. Dennis M. Dimitri, a family physician, runs an unusual office. Few appointments are accepted in advance – patients call in the morning and are assigned a time slot later that day and they don’t have to spend hours in a waiting room.
The federal government is providing $27 billion over the next decade to reward doctors and hospitals for installing electronic health systems. But some hospital officials say the regulations are still too onerous.
The search for Peter Orszag’s successor at the Office of Management and Budget is over, as the White House announced Tuesday morning that President Obama has picked Jacob Lew, who held the same job during the Clinton administration.
The Obama administration released its National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States Tuesday.
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised greater focus on HIV/AIDS but the effort was postponed as the administration wrestled with other issues.
A new Medicare demonstration program sends doctors to see chronically ill patients at home
Deals in Detroit and Boston may be the leading edge of a trend, hospital analysts say.
President Obama’s decision to use his recess appointment powers to nominate Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services continues to anger Republicans who wanted a public examination of Berwick’s record.
President Obama’s decision to use his recess appointment powers to nominate Donald Berwick to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services continues to anger Republicans who wanted a public examination of Berwick’s record.
