Holy Cross Hospital's health center in Aspen Hill, Maryland, is bracing for more business. The center treats the uninsured, and has been busy since it opened in 2012 with a waiting list of more than 400 people at its clinic. Now, as a result of the U.S. Affordable Care Act, it's mulling adding staff and hours in anticipation of next year's rush of newly-insured patients, many with chronic medical conditions that have gone untreated for years. Poorly controlled diabetes can cause stroke, kidney failure and blindness. Undiagnosed cancer can translate into complex end-of-life care, and untreated high blood pressure can lead to heart attacks.
Every hospital in the District and five in the Virginia suburbs will be penalized in the second round of Medicare's campaign to reduce the number of patients readmitted to hospitals within a month, according to federal records. Nationwide, Medicare identified 2,225 hospitals that will have their reimbursements for patient care reduced starting Oct. 1 because readmissions at each occurred more frequently than Medicare believes they should have. Hospitals that treated large proportions of low-income patients were more likely to be penalized than those treating the fewest low-income patients.
Prices paid in the U.S. for medical devices, including those that regulate the heart's rhythm and replacements for hips and knees, have plunged as much as one-third since 2007 as hospitals clamped down on spending. The average inflation-adjusted prices for seven of the largest categories of medical devices fell through 2011, according to a study released today from the Advanced Medical Technology Association. Drug-coated stents used to prop open arteries sold by Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX), Abbott Laboratories (ABT) and Medtronic Inc. (MDT) had a 34 percent decline. Artificial knees from Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Zimmer Holdings Inc. (ZMH) and Stryker Corp. (SYK) fell the least at 17 percent.
Florida isn't just a battleground state for presidential elections; it's ground zero in the nation's Obamacare wars. It's all about demographics. And geographics. Retiree-heavy Florida has a surplus of voting seniors nervous about Obamacare's changes. But Hispanics — the state's least-insured but fastest-growing population — tend to support the Affordable Care Act. The fourth-most populous in the nation, Florida is the most-diverse political swing state and has the nation's second-highest rate of the uninsured, nearly 25 percent. Active Democratic voters, who outnumber Republicans by more than 500,000, learned last year from President Obama's campaign that the law can be a political plus — especially among Hispanics — after it was a millstone in 2010.
Health-law provisions taking effect next year could save U.S. employers billions of dollars in expenses now paid for workers who continue medical coverage after they leave the company, benefits experts say. Insurance marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act are expected to all but replace COBRA coverage in which ex-employees and dependents can remain on the company plan if they pay the premiums. "As soon as the law was passed, the question among employers and benefits people was: Is there still going to be a reason for COBRA?" said Steve Wojcik, vice president of public policy for the National Business Group on Health, an employer group.
As snow begins falling in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, the town at its doorstep, finds itself newly isolated. The only year-round road into or out of Estes Park, Colo., now is the Peak to Peak Highway. It traverses a jumble of mountains all the way. It's not the kind of road an ambulance can scream over at 60 miles an hour. "Not while I'm in the back, hopefully," jokes ambulance driver and paramedic Erle Collum. The recent flooding in Colorado washed out the other two roads into town for miles at a stretch. That's bad news for Estes Park Medical Center, the town's only hospital.