Americans increasingly have to dig into their own pockets to pay for medical care, a shift that is helping to curb the growth in health spending by employers and the government. The trend is being accelerated by the Affordable Care Act because many private plans sold by the law's health exchanges come with hefty out-of-pocket costs, which prompt some people to delay or put off seeking care. For the exchanges' 2015 policies, which went on sale last month, "bronze-level" plans have an average deductible of $5,181 for individuals, up from $5,081 in 2014, according to a November report from HealthPocket, which publishes health insurance market analyses. Bronze plans generally cover 60% of consumers' medical expenses. [Subscription Required]
U.S. healthcare spending grew 3.6 percent in 2013, the slowest rate on record since 1960, federal health officials reported Wednesday. The figures represent good news for the Obama administration in its effort to contain the growth of healthcare costs, though experts disagreed on how much the federal healthcare reform law has played a role. Total medical expenditures in the United States reached $2.9 trillion last year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) said in an annual report. The total share of the economy devoted to health remained largely the same, at 17.4 percent, while health spending per person was $9,255, up from $8,915 in 2012, the report stated.
Business groups and individuals have proposed a "free market" solution to expand government-funded health care coverage to nearly 1 million Floridians. A coalition of business interests and private citizens, including some prominent Republicans, unveiled a plan Wednesday to accept federal dollars to extend publicly funded health care coverage to nearly a million Floridians — without calling it "Medicaid expansion," as envisioned under the Affordable Care Act. The plan, called A Healthy Florida Works, offers an alternative to the ACA model while proposing a politically viable path for Florida's Republican-controlled House of Representatives, an obstinate opponent of the health law, to extend coverage to more residents.
Since September, five current or former emergency room workers sued Orange Park Medical Center, saying the hospital punished them for reporting concerns about medical mistakes or patient safety. "There were many instances … where patient safety was compromised," said Purvin Shah, a critical care doctor whose suit says hospital staffers were instructed not to document medical mistakes. The suit seeks $220 million from the hospital and from the company Shah worked through, Intensive Care Consortium, Inc.
An unidentified patient was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital for Ebola testing on Tuesday, but if the case had presented at a different hospital would staffs have been prepared? The question has been plaguing the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA). Its members have been asking for statewide training and protocol to be put in place at Bay State hospitals for months. David Schildmeier, the director of public communications for the MNA, acknowledged that several Massachusetts hospitals have been designated as Ebola treatment centers, but without "uniform and consistent training and preparation...there could be a break in the system that could cause exposure to a caregiver, or worse, to a community member."
The first thing patients probably notice when walking into the new doctors offices at Greater Baltimore Medical Center is there is no waiting room. Patients go directly to an exam room, where doctors, nurses and other staff are supposed to cycle in during a half-hour appointment. All supplies are on hand, as are electronic medical records, to ensure that people leave with any needed prescriptions or referrals to specialists. The design is patterned after one used by a Seattle medical system, which modeled it after Toyota's production system. The so-called "patient-centered medical home" concept aims to improve work flow, improve patient care and cut costs.