Observation Units Can Improve Care But May Be Costly For Patients
Sometimes patients who are kept in the hospital to monitor their condition are not formally admitted and must pick up a bigger share of the cost.
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Sometimes patients who are kept in the hospital to monitor their condition are not formally admitted and must pick up a bigger share of the cost.
Letters to the Editor is a periodic KHN feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We will edit for space, and we require full names.
Insurance columnist answers readers' questions about the new pregnancy benefits offered in the health overhaul, assurances that current insurance policies will be honored in the future and switching employer health plans.
Some advocates are concerned that the Medicare Advantage plans have incentives to skim off the lowest-maintenance customers and leave the expensive patients to the traditional program.
Some 500 NYU doctors found refuge at other hospitals while NYU was closed following Hurricane Sandy. Now, the question looms whether all of the patients and doctors will return.
Doctors, staff and administrators at the large urban institution have had to improvise as they restore partial service to the community and repair the historic hospital's damaged infrastructure at the same time.
While most of the nation's kidney transplant centers don't have an upper age limit for recipients, more than three-quarters don't accept the organs from people older than 70. Some doctors and patients are pushing to change that.
A recent study found that the health care industry isn't benefiting from computer networks that have transformed other fields. But the federal coordinator for health IT says there has been a lot of progress that will result in better care and cost savings in the future.
Medicaid and private insurers seek to reduce deliveries before 39 weeks to reduce complications and costs.
A survey finds that more than three-quarters of hospices have restrictive enrollment policies designed to keep away patients with high-cost medical needs.
For one San Diego Hospice, the trouble began with a federal audit.
More patients with the flu are seeking care at the emergency room this year, and despite the 112 million Americans who have gotten a flu shot, it remains to be seen if this year's version will be just bad or historically bad.
The storefront doctor's offices serve a vast number of uninsured Latino residents, in a kind of parallel, cash-only health system. But officials have little information on the quality of health care the clinicas provide, and whether they might be able to help fill persistent and profound gaps in Los Angeles' strained safety net.
The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society is testing how using technology to monitor seniors' health can save money on medical costs and help seniors feel secure enough to "age in place."
Hospitals complain they are bearing the brunt of sustaining payment levels for doctors but the changes in Medicare were a long time coming.
Letters to the Editor is a periodic KHN feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection.
Data companies are poised to profit from the expansion of Medicaid.
Under a program set up by the health law, payments to 1,557 hospitals will be increased, while 1,427 will drop.
Payments to hospitals are adjusted to reflect how they follow standards of care and patients' ratings of their experiences.
This chart shows the average effect by state of the value-based purchasing program on hospitals' Medicare reimbursements per hospital stay for the federal spending year that runs from last October through September 2013.
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