Latest Morning Briefing Stories
Even With Coverage Expansion, Access To Mental Health Services Poses Challenges
A 50-state analysis details incidence rates of mental illness and access to care across the country.
Too Little, Too Late For Many New Yorkers Seeking Hospice
Evidence shows hospice care can extend life and save money, but only if patients and doctors dare ask for the help. One New Yorker said hospice gave her back a normal life — at peace, pain subdued.
Rx For Reform: NC Pharmacists Try To Boost Health And Cut Costs
The federal government has invested $15 million in a North Carolina experiment that gives community pharmacists a new role in patient care.
Popularity Of Outpatient Surgery Centers Leads To Questions About Safety
The recent death of Joan Rivers, who suffered cardiac arrest at a center in New York, highlights some of the concerns among consumer advocates.
Few Women Have Coverage For Egg Freezing
Although egg freezing is the perk du jour at some high profile companies, too often such options are not available, even for women with serious illnesses such as cancer.
Fantastic Voyage: Tiny Sensors May Soon Monitor Seniors’ Medicines From Inside
New nano-meds, miniscule robots embedded in a pill, send signals to an external monitor to record each new medication as it slides through the digestive tract. This will be especially useful for older people, who may not be able to keep track of a panoply of medicines.
Small Businesses Drop Coverage As Health Law Offers Alternatives
Small employers are canceling medical plans and leaving workers to buy insurance through the law’s online marketplaces — sometimes to everyone’s benefit.
Making The Human Condition Computable
For centuries, the central challenge in health care was ignorance. Now, health care is being flooded with information. But commerce and medicine are still trying to figure out what do with all that data.
Obamacare Co-Ops Cut Prices, Turn Up Heat On Rival Insurers
For-profit carriers complain the upstarts have an unfair edge because of low-interest federal loans.
Wellness At Work: Popular But Unproven
Almost all large employers offer at least one wellness plan, but studies showing these efforts really save money are scarce.
Doctors’ Testimony Crucial As Border Children Seek Asylum
Medical-legal partnerships in New York and Los Angeles help some unaccompanied minors navigate immigration hearings.
Obamacare Creates Boom For Federal Contractors
Surging contracts related to the Affordable Care Act have helped make the Department of Health and Human Services a fount of revenue for private business.
HHS’s Contracting Bonanza in 8 Charts
The Affordable Care Act and related programs have helped make the Department of Health and Human Services the No. 3 federal agency for outsourcing work to private business, after the Pentagon and the Energy Department.
Some Newly Covered Illinois Residents Still Struggle To Pay For Health Care
Even with insurance, high deductibles can put care out of reach.
Federal Officials Urge Marketplace Consumers To Look For Better Deals In 2015
People who bought coverage on healthcare.gov for this year could likely find cheaper premiums if they shop again.
Growth In U.S. Health Spending In 2013 Is Lowest Since 1960
The report credits slower growth in spending for private health insurance, Medicare, hospitals, physicians and clinical services.
Big Data Offer New Strategy For Public Health Campaigns
In Chicago, data analytics methods once used in political campaigns helped identify women needing mammograms.
Consumers Will Pay More Out Of Pocket Next Year For Specialty Drugs
More insurers selling Affordable Care Act plans will charge consumers higher rates for medicines that treat multiple sclerosis, hepatitis C and other serious illnesses, Avalere studies say.
EEOC Takes Aim At Wellness Programs Increasingly Offered By Employers
The lawsuits brought by the commission, which have raised complaints from business leaders, highlight the lack of clarity in the standards under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Medicare Tightens Non-Emergency Use Of Ambulances To Combat Fraud
Advocates say many poor seniors who need dialysis and cancer treatments will have few transportation options.
