U.S. health insurers that waged a campaign against Obamacare hit an all-time high on the stock market Wednesday after UnitedHealth Group Inc. said it would add hundreds of thousands of new customers because of the law. The Standard & Poor's 500 Managed Health Care Index -- which includes the five biggest U.S. insurers -- closed at 1,031.18 on Wednesday in New York, the highest level since at least 1994. Health insurers have said that the Affordable Care Act has cost them billions in taxes and fees -- including $1 billion in 2014 for UnitedHealth -- and burdened them with new regulations.
Blue Shield of California issued a counter offer to Sutter Health on Wednesday that would extend the previous contract between the two companies through 2016. Sutter proposed earlier this week that Blue Shield let patients keep their Sutter doctors until the end of this year. The two salvos in a nasty contract fight between one of the largest health systems and one of the largest health plans in the state sound good for patients but protect the special interests of the one behind the offer. Unable to reach agreement on terms for a new contract that covers thousands of members in Northern California, Sutter and Blue Shield let the old one expire on New Year's Eve.
More health care providers could be encouraged to work in underserved areas of Washington state under a pair of bills to be introduced in Olympia next week that would help those providers pay back their student loans. Senate Bill 5010 and House Bill 1080, which have bipartisan sponsors and are supported by a number of Washington state health organizations, would restore and increase a currently underfunded state loan repayment program for health professionals working in rural areas. The legislation would give the incentive to a wide range of health care professionals to work in state- and federally designated areas that are considered underserved. Many of these rural areas are in Eastern Washington.
At least 35 patients fell ill and 11 died after contracting a superbug infection at a hospital in Seattle, Washington, according to a new report. The Seattle Times reports that dozens of patients at Virginia Mason Medical Center were infected with a drug-resistant bacteria known as carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) between 2012 and 2014, a result of contact with contaminated endoscopes. Hospital and public health officials in Seattle did not disclose to patients and their families the cause of the infection at the time of illness, the paper reports. However, health officials say it remains unclear what role the bacteria had, since most patients who underwent the procedure already were critically ill with colon or pancreatic cancer.
The federal health authorities reported Thursday that nearly one-third of women of reproductive age had had an opioid painkiller prescription filled every year from 2008 to 2012. Experts said the practice carried considerable risks for birth defects. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analyzed health insurance claims data from Medicaid and private insurers for women ages 15 to 55 and found that an average of 39 percent of women on Medicaid filled an opioid prescription in a pharmacy each year from 2008 to 2012, compared with 28 percent of women with private insurance.
For those who need a transplant, the wait for an organ in America is growing longer: As Nobel economist Gary Becker lays in out in a recent op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, 95,000 Americans were on the waiting list for new kidneys in 2012, but only 16,500 kidney transplants occurred that year. Today, there are over 78,000 candidates waiting for an organ transplant. The exchange of kidneys represents what economists call a repugnant market: It could be made more efficient if people were allowed to pay for them, but there are ethical concerns about introducing money into the equation.