Health Insurance News and Research

RSS

Next up: New round of budget battles; Medicare, Medicaid spending debates

Democrats and Republicans are bracing for the next round of confrontations over federal spending, which will include issues involving the future of entitlement programs as well as the debt ceiling.

12 Apr 2011

Short-term budget deal details take shape

As the dust settles from last-minute budget negotiations to avert a government shutdown, specific outlines of the final agreement are taking shape -- including how proposals fared for spending cuts to health law programs as well as to Planned Parenthood, and other controversial measures.

12 Apr 2011

State roundup: Texas hospital tax; IBM challenges Vt. single payer

The Connecticut Supreme Court has ruled that the state can cut off medical assistance to legal noncitizens who have been in the country fewer than five years, clearing the way to implement a 2009 budget cut that had been stalled because of legal action.

12 Apr 2011

MediCare International introduces new policy buying website

MediCare International has today announced the launch of online buying as a central part of their newly designed website. Clients can log on, select a policy level suitable for their circumstances, generate a quote and then proceed to full online purchase of the policy, all in around 2 minutes at any time of the day, wherever they are in the world.

11 Apr 2011

First Edition: April 11, 2011

In today's headlines, as details emerge regarding the last-minute budget deal for current-year spending, President Barak Obama is poised to lay out a new long-term budget vision which will include everything from Medicare and Medicaid to tax hikes for the wealthy.

11 Apr 2011

Study confirms measles being under-reported

Measles is not always being reported in Germany as required by law, particularly when cases are sporadic. In this edition of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, Annedore Mette's working group presents its conclusions.

11 Apr 2011

AHF praises CA Treasurer for urging AIDS drug companies to reduce medication costs

Today AIDS Healthcare Foundation praised California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer for sending letters to the CEOs of eight AIDS drug companies—Abbott Laboratories, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, Merck & Co., Tibotec Therapeutics and ViiV Healthcare—urging them to reduce the price of their HIV/AIDS medications for California and its AIDS Drug Assistance Program.

11 Apr 2011

ACP's paper provides brief updates on changes to Medicaid program

A reformed Medicaid program must put coordinated primary care at the forefront of its efforts, the American College of Physicians said in a new position paper released today at Internal Medicine 2011, ACP's annual scientific meeting.

11 Apr 2011

Budget agreement preserves funding for Planned Parenthood, Title X and the health law

President Obama and Democratic and Republican congressional leaders reached a last-minute deal Friday to avoid a government shutdown. The agreement, which came after days of partisan sparring and rhetorical drama, would fund the government through the end of September and cut $78.5 billion compared to Obama's proposed but never enacted fiscal 2011 budget.

11 Apr 2011

Immunization does not increase emergency room visit in children with inherited disorders

Children with inborn errors of metabolism received vaccines on the same immunization schedule as did healthy infants, according to Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center scientists who examined the Kaiser Permanente Northern California population. In addition, immunization was not associated with significant increases in emergency room visits or hospitalizations during the month following vaccination, according to Nicola Klein, MD, PhD, lead author of the study and co-director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center.

11 Apr 2011

Obama adviser Plouffe, Rep. Ryan dispute Medicare, Medicaid reform

The Sunday talk shows brought out fundamental differences on what to do about entitlement programs.

11 Apr 2011

Doctors backing single payer system fault Vermont's plan

Physicians for a National Health Program suggest the proposal in Vermont falls "far short" of their goals, The Hill Reports. Meanwhile, The Boston Globe has an interview with one of the architects of the Vermont plan.

8 Apr 2011

Medicare doctor payments sometimes pit specialties against each other

One of the biggest disputes in the Relative Value Scale Update Committee came in 2005, when members clashed over primary-care groups' push for increases in the payments for doctor office visits, which are among the most commonly-billed Medicare services.

8 Apr 2011

Research Roundup: The cost of medical errors; 'Unreasonable rate increases'

Health Affairs: The $17.1 Billion Problem: The Annual Cost Of Measurable Medical Errors - "The estimated total cost of measurable medical errors in the United States was $17.1 billion in 2008, which was 0.72 percent of the $2.391 trillion spent on health care," write the authors of this study that used an "an actuarial approach to measure the frequency and costs of measurable U.S. medical errors, identified through medical claims data."

8 Apr 2011

Some consumers left out of Anthem's delay to planned rate hikes

Although the insurer announced last month that it would delay a planned premium rate increase for about 600,000 policy holders, reports indicate that as many as 120,000 people will still experience the increases.

8 Apr 2011

First Edition: April 8, 2011

Today's headlines include stories tracking the partisan negotiations surrounding a current-year spending bill. Currently at an impasse, the differences between the GOP and Democrats as well as the White House surrounds more than just the total dollar figure attached to spending cuts. It also involves controversial "policy riders." Meanwhile, without resolution, a government shutdown is just hours away.

8 Apr 2011

Doctor files whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against Catholic Charities of Washington

Dr. Charles C. Briggs filed a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit today in D.C. Superior Court against Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington in connection with the organization's failure to rectify serious medical violations committed against patients at its clinics in Washington, D.C. and Langley Park, MD.

8 Apr 2011

VHS Group sponsors 2011 International Health Risk Management Forum

Sponsored by Valurise Health Solutions International, and guided/supported by the Chinese workers' mutual Insurance Association All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the China Insurance Association and the International Disease Management Alliance, the 2011 International Health Risk Management Forum, Opportunity and Challenge of Health Risk Management in the Transition Period in China is going to be held on 20th April, 2011 in the National Convention Centre in Beijing, China.

8 Apr 2011

House Panel approves Ryan 2012 budget blueprint on party-line vote

The GOP budget proposal's Medicare provisions continue to draw scrutiny and debate about what the program's future should look like, how the plan would change senior citizens' health care costs and what its political implications might be.

8 Apr 2011

National policy needed to address heath care system for immigrants, ACP says

As the U.S. immigrant population grows it will be necessary to address the vast number of immigrants who do not have access to health insurance coverage, or who face other barriers to accessing health care, the American College of Physicians said in a new policy paper released today at Internal Medicine 2011, ACP's annual scientific meeting.

8 Apr 2011