Almost 7 million people can sign up for health plans under ObamaCare even before the new enrollment period begins in November, according to an advocacy group. Enroll America, an ObamaCare enrollment group with close ties to the White House, said Wednesday that millions of adults are eligible to sign up for insurance before Nov. 15 because they have moved, gotten married, had children, lost insurance or become American citizens. The group analyzed U.S. Census Bureau data from 2010 to 2012 and found almost 2.7 million uninsured people and 4 million people who are likely to lose insurance have a qualifying life event that would make them eligible for the special enrollment period.
American hospitals and state labs have handled at least 68 Ebola scares over the last three weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hospitals in 27 states alerted the CDC of the possible Ebola cases out of an abundance of caution amid the growing outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Fifty-eight cases were deemed false alarms after CDC officials spoke with medical professions about patient exposures and symptoms, but blood samples for the remaining 10 were sent to the CDC for testing, the agency told ABC News today. Seven of the samples tested negative for the virus and results for the remaining three are pending, the agency said.
After MobiHealthNews spotted and reported on the departure of two Aetna executives on the CarePass team, Aetna has confirmed exclusively to MobiHealthNews that it will be phasing out the platform, and that the previously announced employer pilots will not be going forward. "At this time, we have decided to make no further investments in the CarePass platform," an Aetna spokesperson told MobiHealthNews in an email. "Current CarePass users will continue to have access to the CarePass platform for the time being, but we plan on closing the CarePass web and mobile experiences by the end of this year. In addition, we will not be conducting pilot programs with Aetna plan sponsors that were previously reported."
A security researcher has announced that the notorious OpenSSL bug,Heartbleed, was the initial point of entry for the attack on Community Health Systems (CHS) that netted 4.5 million identity records -- but other researchers point out that Heartbleed is only the beginning of the problem. David Kennedy, CEO of TrustedSec, first announced Heartbleed's involvement on Fox News and in a TrustedSec blog post Wednesday afternoon. Kennedy says he had this confirmed by three people close to the incident, who remain anonymous. CHS has not yet publicly confirmed this and could not be reached for comment as of press time.
Some doctors really mean it when they say they do not take health insurance. For others, it is more of a nuanced statement. Consumers trying to decipher the difference have to ask a lot of questions to figure out how to manage their bills. Here are the three key scenarios facing consumers: 1. "I do not take your insurance, but I will work with you on the price." A growing number of doctors simply are not taking contracts with insurance companies, although the concentration varies by region and by specialty. That leaves patients to pay the market rate the doctor charges, and then submit a receipt to get reimbursement for out-of-network coverage, if they have it.
Washington's medical imaging technology industry is responsible for more than 12,000 jobs in Washington state and has already pumped about $3.1 billion into the state's economy this year, according to a new study. The state's 37 medical imaging technology firms include companies like Bothell medical-device maker Fujifilm SonoSite Inc. that make medical scanners, X-ray equipment and other medical imaging devices. Fujifilm bought the Bothell sonogram company in 2012 for $995 million. Collectively the industry paid Washington workers about $960 million in total wages and benefits.