HealthLeadersMedia.com - Population Health Insider

Group charges health insurers are violating state labor code

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:24:00 GMT

A California-based consumer group is asking the state’s attorney general, Jerry Brown, to investigate health insurance companies that have asked their employees to lobby against healthcare reform.

Nine health leaders respond to Obama’s reform speech

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:23:00 GMT

In an attempt to guide the healthcare debate that has veered off the tracks in recent weeks, President Obama spoke to a joint session of Congress July 22 about a comprehensive health reform bill.

Obama discussed the need for cooperation and improving the current healthcare system rather than creating a new one, such as a single-payer system. The president’s plan would include three basic goals:

More security and stability for those with health insurance
An insurance exchange for those without insurance
Slowing healthcare costs

New efforts to insure young adults may beat reform

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:21:00 GMT

One of the largest groups of uninsured in the country today is young adults—those aged 19–26. Although they make up about 18% of the adult population, they account for up to 28% of the uninsured: an estimated 10.3 million young adults—or about one in three (32%)—lacked health insurance coverage this year, according to figures from the Urban Institute.

Four ways to get more young adults health coverage

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:20:00 GMT

Health insurers know the importance of signing up so-called “young invincibles” to their health plans, but many of these sought-after individuals are not interested—either because they can’t afford health insurance or they simply think they don’t need coverage.

AHIP study: Medicare Advantage provides better care than FFS Medicare

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:19:00 GMT

The health insurance industry’s lobbying group says new government data support its claim that Medicare Advantage provides better coordinated, more efficient care, along with its average 14% higher per-person cost.

California pushes to enact strongest anti-rescission law in the nation

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:18:00 GMT

A bill that may become the strongest legislation in the nation to prevent health plans from dropping coverage to members who become ill passed the California Senate recently and may soon be headed for the governor’s desk.

Population Health Insider, October 2009

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 14:16:00 GMT

Inside:

California pushes to enact strongest anti-rescission law in the nation

AHIP study: Medicare Advantage provides better care than FFS Medicare

LifeMasters files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

Four ways to get more young adults health coverage

New efforts to insure young adults may beat reform

Feds lift WellPoint’s Medicare Advantage, Part D suspension

Hospitals could suffer from public plan

Indiana program shows health reform without individual mandate is costly

Nine health leaders respond to Obama’s reform speech

How to stop rising healthcare costs

Group charges health insurers are violating state labor code

Taxing health benefits would hurt poor working families more than the rich

Chiropractors allege ERISA, RICO violations in Blue Cross suit

Public option would add $1 trillion to deficit

Older women have more difficulty obtaining insurance

Americans doubt reform will improve quality, cost

Public plan is being Swift-boated

Inspector general criticizes three states for improper Medicaid claims

Eliminating fees for overlapping services could save millions for Medicare

Health card companies defrauding patients shut down

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:45:00 GMT

Lisa Truong’s $28,000 bill from a San Francisco hospital is just one reason the California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) recently ordered two unlicensed companies offering fraudulent discount health cards to shut down and a third company selling health coverage to apply for a license or stop operating.

HHS fires up rhetoric against health insurance industry

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:44:00 GMT

The Obama administration’s pugnacity toward the nation’s private health plans intensified with the release of a short but sharply worded U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) talking points memo detailing what federal officials say is the industry’s widespread discrimination against people with preexisting conditions.

Marketing and technology may soon play bigger roles in health insurance

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:43:00 GMT

Health insurers that are anxiously waiting for healthcare reform to shake out before moving forward may find themselves well behind their competitors.

Health cooperatives can’t replace public option

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:42:00 GMT

Consumer health cooperatives “are not yet ready for prime time” and “are certainly not a substitute for a public option” in health reform, Yale professor Jacob Hacker said in a teleconference for reporters in a conference organized by Campaign for America’s Future, a left-leaning Washington, DC, political group advocating social reforms, including healthcare policy change such as universal coverage.

Health insurers, employers could play key roles in tackling healthcare disparities

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:41:00 GMT

There are two stakeholders who hold enormous potential in reducing or eliminating racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, and they’re not physicians, nurses, or policymakers. Health insurers and employers have an opportunity to improve patient outcomes. This is more than a moral issue. By focusing on racial and ethnic disparities, there is also an opportunity to lower long-term health costs.

AHIP decries ‘exorbitant’ out-of-network charges

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:38:00 GMT

The health insurance industry’s trade group wants state and federal policymakers to examine what it claims are “exorbitant” out-of-network charges by physicians that are detailed in a new industry-sponsored survey.

Hospitals would see 32% payment drop with public plan

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:37:00 GMT

The public health insurance plan proposed under the House healthcare reform bill (HR 3200) would have “a substantial price advantage” over private insurance because it would pay providers using current Medicare payment methodology, according to an analysis of HR 3200 released by The Lewin Group in Falls Church, VA, part of Ingenix, a wholly owned subsidiary of UnitedHealthcare.

ICD-10 implementation: Critical steps insurers must take

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:36:00 GMT

With a public insurance option hanging over their heads and a sputtering employer-based market, health insurers are rightfully concerned about the future. But there is another issue slated for 2013 that could prove to be as difficult for health insurers.

Could a Massachusetts-style individual mandate work across the nation?

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:33:00 GMT

Can the federal government apply an individual mandate, such as the one in Massachusetts, across the country? And how would the government enforce such a rule in large states such as California, with a population of 37 million, where 34% of non-Medicare-age residents do not have health coverage? How much would the government charge uninsured Americans when they get sick, and how should it collect fines from them for not having insurance?

BCBSA puts bank up for sale

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:32:00 GMT

The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association’s (BCBSA) attempt at a healthcare bank appears to be coming to an end with the company’s announcement that it is trying to sell Blue Healthcare Bank.

BAs, covered entities should comply with HITECH now

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:31:00 GMT

Business associates (BA) and covered entities want to know what they must do to comply with the new HIPAA laws in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.

Eight tips to help get your business associates to comply with HIPAA

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:30:00 GMT

Your business associates (BA) must comply with the HIPAA security rule beginning February 18, 2010.

Small businesses could win big in House health reform bill

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 13:27:00 GMT

Small businesses—particularly those with 10 employees or fewer—stand to be the big winners if a public health insurance option such as the one now before the House of Representatives becomes a reality, according to a new issue brief by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington, DC.