Wider insurance coverage erased racial differences in who got minimally invasive surgery in Massachusetts, according to a new study. After the state increased access to insurance in 2006, racial disparities in the proportion of people having gallbladders or appendixes removed with minimally invasive techniques - versus traditional "open" surgery - disappeared, researchers found. "The Massachusetts experience provides a really unique and natural experiment to measure the effect of insurance expansion," Dr. Andrew Loehrer, the study's lead author from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told Reuters Health.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation Tuesday stripping broad secrecy provisions from the state agency overseeing health care reform in California that gave it the power to shield from the public how hundreds of millions of dollars are spent. The Democratic governor signed the bill on the same day online insurance marketplaces that are at the heart of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul went into business around the country. The bill was drafted after an Associated Press investigation in May revealed that the agency known as Covered California was granted broad authority to conceal spending on the contractors that will perform most of its functions.
Some doctors' offices are still charging patients co-payments for preventive exams, such as annual physicals and well-baby checkups, even though the Affordable Care Act prohibits the practice. "Doctors' offices and staff aren't really educated about what is covered," said Monica Lindeen, Montana's insurance commissioner and state auditor and vice president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. "They don't know what they need to bill for and what they don't." Because of the Affordable Care Act, most preventive health visits, such as mammograms, flu shots and colonoscopies, no longer require a co-payment or co-insurance if a person's coverage began after the law passed in 2010.
New customers to the health insurance marketplace in southwestern Pennsylvania will have more than 35 different plans to choose from. And physicians who treat those patients may have no choice but to keep track of all 35 plans -- each with its own coverages, co-payments and deductibles. That's just one of the administrative headaches that physician practices may face when the marketplace coverage under the Affordable Care Act starts Jan. 1. "It's going to be very confusing to the patient and to the physicians," said C. Richard Schott, a Philadelphia-area cardiologist and president of the Pennsylvania Medical Society in a phone-in media briefing Wednesday.
Luis Veloz wasn't going to wait for the federal government to work out the kinks in its website before enrolling in the nation's new health insurance system. Instead, he rushed to fill out a paper application and mailed it in, eager to have a plan that would prevent him from racking up major medical bills like his parents. As Texas residents encountered difficulties with the website for a second day, those trained to assist with the process said callers are simply asking for a nearby location where they can complete the process the old-fashioned way: in person and on paper.
Prompted by the Highmark-UPMC battle, two Pittsburgh-area lawmakers want to introduce legislation requiring hospitals such as UPMC's to contract with "any willing insurer." The contract between Highmark and UPMC expires at the end of 2014, meaning if the two don't arrive at a new contract before then, many Highmark customers won't have access to UPMC doctors and hospitals. The bills have yet to be introduced to the House; co-sponsors Dan Frankel, D-Squirrel Hill, and Jim Christiana, R-Beaver, will discuss them at a Harrisburg news conference this morning.