WASHINGTON (AP) — Coping with advanced cancer, Bev Veals was in the hospital for chemo this summer when she got a call that her health plan was shutting down. Then, the substitute insurance she was offered wanted her to pay up to $3,125, on top of premiums. It sounds like one of those insurance horror stories President Barack Obama told to sell his health overhaul to Congress, but Veals wasn't in the clutches of a profit-driven company. Instead, she's covered by Obama's law — one of about 100,000 people with serious medical issues in a financially troubled government program.
United Healthcare, one of the two largest health insurers in the U.S., set an important precedent when it recently announced its introduction of an online bill payment service that enables United members to pay their bills to healthcare providers by credit card or bank transfer. United, which has integrated the online bill-pay capability with its claims processing system, is the first payer to supply a service of this kind, said Victoria Bogatyrenko, VP of products innovation for United, in an interview with InformationWeek Healthcare. Although electronic claims submission, remittance advice and funds transfer have been widely adopted in the industry, the process of collecting the ever-increasing portion of payments that patients owe remains in the Middle Ages of technology.
A blood pressure check may be one of the most tried and true routines of a visit to the doctor's office. But a group of Allina Health doctors in Edina is challenging the reliability of the conventional test and is trying a new method they believe could provide a more accurate diagnosis for thousands of patients who suffer from hypertension. While few doubt that routine checks help millions of Americans control their high blood pressure, there is growing evidence that these point-in-time readings overdiagnose some patients — people whose numbers go up at the doctors' office simply because of nerves — while underdiagnosing others whose hidden hypertension puts them at greater risk for stroke and heart disease.
Surgery to remove the uterus using a $1.5 million robot from Intuitive Surgical Inc. doesn't reduce complications and may raise pneumonia risk compared with conventional less-invasive techniques, according to a second extensive study to find no added benefit from the devices. Researchers examined data from about 16,000 women who had hysterectomies for benign conditions in 2009 and 2010. The robot operations cost hospitals $2,489 more per procedure with a similar complication rate as the standard practice of removing the uterus with minimally invasive equipment, according to the study released in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.
Information technology has two broad roles at UPMC. First, it must improve the operations of the company's hospitals and health insurance plan, improve the care of patients, and drive down the company's costs. Second, technology should make money for UPMC -- it's not just a cost center. At most companies, that second goal is a nice-to-have if things work out that way. But under the leadership of CIO Dan Drawbaugh, UPMC is explicit that its IT organization will develop unique technologies that it can sell to other healthcare providers and insurers.
The health insurance industry and business allies are stepping up their campaign to repeal another new Obamacare tax this fall — one that they argue will hit consumers smack in the health care part of their wallet. As Congress returns from recess, expect to hear more about the health insurance tax, or HIT, as it's known, a levy in the health care law to raise $116 billion through 2023. That money, in turn, is supposed to help finance expanded coverage. America's Health Insurance Plans, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an insurance brokers association and other groups launched a digital advertising and social media campaign last month to stir opposition to the tax, especially in states of the lawmakers who might do something about it.