WASHINGTON (AP) There's a bit of a domino effect undercutting President Barack Obama's health care law. Enforcement of the overhaul's central mandate that individual Americans must have coverage could be weakened by the Obama administration's recent delay of a requirement that larger employers provide medical insurance. That's because the delayed rule also required companies to report health insurance details for employees. Without employers validating who's covered, a scofflaw could lie, and the government would have no easy way to check. The Treasury Department said Tuesday it expects any impact to be minor, since most people will not risk telling the government a lie.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius was in Orlando on Tuesday meeting with community and health-care leaders about the new health-insurance exchange set to launch Oct. 1. At a meeting hosted by Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer, Sebelius urged leaders to push the word out about how to access health insurance through the exchange and to prepare Central Florida for the open-enrollment period. "Just because people have the opportunity to get new coverage doesn't mean they know about it," the secretary said of her biggest challenge in rolling out the federal exchange, which 27 states, including Florida, have opted to use.
This is a story about data. Lots and lots of data. And not just any data. Extremely sensitive data. The U.S. health system is undergoing a major technological shift right now. Some equate it to finally catching up to where the banking and airline industries have been for years: Doctors and hospitals are moving to electronic health records systems, and it's not easy. Cerner, based in Kansas City, Mo., has grown into one of the nation's biggest players in the field of health information technology. Cerner's main headquarters seems like a college campus, peppered with trees and walking paths, along with some Star Trek-like architecture.
Medical equipment manufacturers operate largely on a "supply and demand" model: Hospitals buy their multi-million dollar machines, use them for a few years, and then the process starts again. But Philips Healthcare and a hospital system in Georgia are betting on a new business model, one that has risks and rewards for both the hospital and the manufacturer. Philips is now going to provide the Georgia Regents Health System with everything from equipment and training to maintenance ? potentially even light bulbs and tooth brushes. But as part of the 15-year, $300 million agreement, Philips also gets something it hasn't had before: complete access.
After four straight years of profitable growth, Minnesota's health plans have stockpiled a substantial surplus of cash reserves. The health insurance companies, which get nearly three-quarters of their business from state and federal programs, now have more than $1.9 billion in reserves — $1.3 billion more than required by state law, according to a review by Twin Cities health care analyst Allan Baumgarten. "It's so much more than they would ever need, even if there was a flu outbreak," Baumgarten said. Combined, the HMOs have enough in reserves to cover 3.2 months of medical claims if no revenue were coming in, according to the analysis Baumgarten released Monday.
JACKSON, Miss. — Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi has told the state's second-largest hospital owner that it will end its contract with the company's 10 Mississippi hospitals at the end of August. The insurer sent the termination notice to Health Management Associates hospitals statewide on June 25. Naples, Fla.-based HMA had sued Blue Cross for $13 million a week earlier, claiming the Flowood, Miss., insurer is breaking contract terms by underpaying for a number of procedures. At the same time, Blue Cross and Jackson's University of Mississippi Medical Center continue talks over payment rates, with the chance that the insurer will no longer contract for treatment at the state's largest hospital.