Purchases of over-the-counter medicines like aspirin and cough syrup will help employees who hold health flexible spending accounts whittle balances before 2008 ends and, in many cases, they forfeit their money Benefits experts say there are several last-minute ways to use leftover money in these accounts. Band-Aids, laxatives and even condoms are all eligible for flex spending dollars. A family of four tends to spend about $200 each year on over-the-counter items that can be reimbursed through an FSA.
The Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services has fined PacifiCare Life Assurance $46,000 for failing to conduct reasonable investigations before denying claims, making policyholders with pre-existing conditions wait more than six months for coverage of those conditions, and for failing to act promptly on a claim.
Tennessee hospitals are feeling the effects of a slumping economy, forced into cutting staff, increasing charity care and dipping into hospital reserves to pay bad debt. In a membership survey completed this month, the Tennessee Hospital Association found that a majority of the state's hospitals that responded have reduced staff or are considering cuts. Nearly as many have also cut services or are thinking about reducing them. Craig Becker, president of the THA, said the survey revealed dramatic changes in three categories: a spike in charity care, namely because of an increase in uninsured patient visits to emergency rooms; at least a 20% to 25% decrease in hospital reserves because of losses in the stock market.
With unemployment rising, more people with high-risk health problems are expected to turn to state-subsidized insurance that takes effect Thursday. But so far only 500 of the 180,000 North Carolinians estimated to qualify have applied. State legislators established the N.C. Health Insurance Risk Pool more than a year ago to provide an option for people whose illnesses push them out of the market for private health insurance. The pool's benefits are limited, and its costs are high. But for people with chronic diseases, enrollment can reduce out-of-pocket expenses by half—especially after they've lost their jobs and exhausted their health insurance benefits under provisions of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA.
More than 300 disabled senior citizens in Massachusetts will enter the new year on a waiting list for basic home care services, not knowing when or whether the assistance might arrive, because of state budget cuts. Just a couple of months ago, there was almost no wait for a home care aide who could help with daily tasks such as bathing, dressing, and grocery shopping, the kind of services that keep people out of far more expensive nursing homes. But budget cuts announced October 15 sliced nearly $4 million, roughly 3.6%, out of the program. The budget cuts resulted in a waiting list that, on December 15, stood at 320 and is expected to grow, especially after the state announced a second round of budget cuts of up to $1 billion.
So many adults without children have enrolled in Indiana's year-old subsidized health insurance plan that their numbers threaten to reach a federal cap—especially as the recession lengthens and more people find themselves out of work. About half of the 41,948 people in the Healthy Indiana Plan are Hoosiers without dependent children. The cap on enrollees in that category is 34,000.