Federal regulators are now scrutinizing whether small companies with relatively healthy employees will pull out of the group health insurance market by self-insuring—meaning the companies take on the risk of paying for employees' medical care. That could make premiums for traditional health insurance plans, where an insurance company bears the risk, unaffordable for the businesses that remain. Stop-loss policies are insurance agreements that employers can buy to limit the amount of risk they take on when self-insuring. In a Federal Register notice posted on May 1, three agencies are requesting information about stop-loss insurance.
HCA Holdings Inc.'s (NYSE: HCA) earnings increased 91.3 percent in the first quarter. Earnings were $639 million, or $1.18 cents per share, on revenue of $8.4 billion. Analysts, on average, had estimated earnings of 94 cents per share on revenue of $8.77 billion, according to Thomson Reuters. Richard Bracken, CEO and chairman of the board at HCA, said revenue growth was driven primarily by increased volume, two adjustments related to Medicare revenue for prior periods, and financial consolidation of its HealthONE venture.
Learning to use a laser to reduce wrinkles is a huge shift in philosophy for Dr. Briana Spooner, a pediatrician. Dr. Spooner is taking classes to learn an additional trade. She is part of a growing trend of medical professionals moving outside their specialties and into the world of beauty. Despite a bad economy, the number of medical spas has grown 80 percent in the past two years, according to the International Medical Spa Association. This field— once dominated by plastic surgeons and dermatologists—is now expanding with family practice doctors, internal medicine specialists, and even dentists. The reason? Money.
Florida Hospital will set in motion its first attempt at work-force housing in July, when construction starts on a 230-unit apartment complex between Interstate 4 and the giant hospital system's main campus on North Orange Avenue in Orlando. Even though it's billed as work-force housing, units in the complex will be available to all applicants, whether they work at the hospital or not. Hospital employees will be given priority, but they will not get discounts and will pay market-rate rents. The four- or five-story complex, part of the hospital's emerging 114-acre Health Village, will be called The Ivy — Residences at Health Village.
Patients and their insurers won't see much of a difference in hospital bills in the next year, as the state rate-setting panel decided to adopt a plan favored by the hospitals that holds payments "to a near-freeze level." In a close vote, the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission agreed to lower the rates for inpatients by 1 percent but raise the rates for those receiving outpatient services by 2.59 percent, giving the hospitals an overall increase of 0.3 percent. The rates are for the year starting July 1. The hospital industry was pleased its proposal won the day but said it still doesn't fix the problems with healthcare costs and the state's unique rate-setting system.
Gov. Tom Corbett announced Highmark and UPMC have reached a deal to provide Highmark insurance customers with in-network access to all UPMC physicians and hospitals through 2014. Mr. Corbett said he brought the two Pittsburgh health companies together several weeks ago to negotiate with the help of a third-party mediator, David F. Simon, the executive vice president and chief legal officer of Jefferson Health System in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The governor did not elaborate about how the state would prompt the feuding companies to reach an accord but he noted the benefits Highmark and UPMC receive from their tax-exempt status as non-profit institutions.