(Reuters) - American companies are sending shockwaves through the healthcare industry by moving a rapidly growing number of employees onto privately run online exchanges for their medical coverage. In a business already bracing for major change because of President Barack Obama's healthcare reforms, the decisions are threatening to shift more power in the market to the benefit consulting firms opening many of the exchanges. Health insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers who have traditionally had a more direct relationship with the employers could lose out to the nascent marketplaces.
Yesterday I attended Brookings Papers on Economic Activity to watch some of the smartest economists in America debate some of the most interesting papers. The very first paper presented is of particularly timely interest: "Is This Time Different? The Slowdown in Healthcare Spending." Those of you who do not spend many happy waking hours parsing health statistics may be unaware that the rate of increase in health-care spending has slowed in recent years. The administration and not a few people in the press are fond of claiming this as a victory for President Barack Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare.
U.S. State officials behind the launch of President Barack Obama's healthcare reform on Oct. 1 say they could weather a federal government shutdown, though the scenario would add new pressure to the political attacks and technical issues that have weighed on the program's introduction. Several officials running new state-based insurance exchanges that are due to open for enrollment next month said they expected to have access to funds in the case of a shutdown, which if it happens, would also start on Oct. 1, the beginning of the fiscal year.
Eleven days before push comes to shove for the federal health insurance marketplace, the nation's top Obamacare official on Friday used a Kansas City forum to seek help from local officials. There are bound to be some glitches Oct. 1, the first day that consumers can shop for individual pricing information on the federal health insurance marketplace, said Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. But in an interview, she expressed confidence that the federal government's online system would be ready for consumers in Kansas and Missouri. What's needed, she said, is grass-roots help to educate consumers about their options.
NATCHEZ, Miss. -- Natchez Regional Medical Center will seek a "stalking horse" bid in which a potential buyer makes an initial offer to set the floor for an auction. Hospital officials tell The Natchez Democrat that three health care providers have agreed to participate. "We are hopeful that within a matter of weeks we will have identified a stalking horse," said Healthcare Management Partners Director Clare Moylan. Healthcare Management Partners was hired by Adams County in July to help negotiate the sale of the county-owned NRMC.
On the same day that officials at Little Dixie Community Action Agency in Hugo, Okla., won a $580,000 federal grant to help consumers sign up for coverage under the federal health law, they received a warning from the state's top insurance regulator. Commissioner John Doak said that if the new insurance guides known as "navigators" perform any of the duties of state-licensed insurance agents, "we will put a stop to it." He also called the $1.6 million award to hire and train navigators in Oklahoma — part of $67 million nationwide — "a waste" because it would duplicate the work of better-trained agents.