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Races tighten over health overhaul issues as clock ticks down to midterm elections

Races around the nation are being scrutinized for what the outcomes might mean for the health overhaul after next week's midterm elections.

30 Oct 2010

Health reform implementation: Insurance options, states and exchanges, ACOs

Provisions of the health law that have already been implemented will change next year's insurance offerings -- so employees should pay attention to their options during open season, U.S. News & World Report writes. "You may be able to take advantage of some benefits that kicked in over the past few months under the new health reform law.

30 Oct 2010

Providers brace for health overhaul, seek to improve quality

The (Torrance, Calif.) Daily Breeze: "With health care reform on the way -- bringing with it scores of new Medi-Cal patients -- community clinics that treat mostly low-income and uninsured patients are looking at ways to transform into primary care medical hubs. South Bay Family Health Care, based in Redondo Beach, will get help doing that from Los Angeles County's only public health insurance plan, L.A. Care. The nonprofit health plan has hired a consulting firm to help 11 clinics improve their treatment model over the next two years" (Evans, 10/28).

30 Oct 2010

HHS approves hundreds more local Gov'ts, businesses, unions for early retiree health program

The federal Department of Health and Human Services is still accepting applications for the $5 billion program to help cover the cost of retiree health care, the National Journal reports. The agency says 700 more employers have joined the program, raising the total to 3,600.

30 Oct 2010

Medicare pilots deliver mixed savings results

The Fiscal Times explores whether the Medicare pilot programs in the new health law will end up saving money.

30 Oct 2010

State Watch: R.I. group experiments with payment reform; Ariz. dispute over abortion; Vt. and Feds to end monitoring of caregivers

The Providence (R.I.) Journal: "The Lifespan hospital group and Blue Cross have reached an agreement intended to gradually overturn the way hospital care is financed, with the goal of promoting health, rather than episodes of treatment. The agreement is the first to meet unique-in-the-nation rules from state Health Insurance Commissioner Christopher F. Koller, who has identified hospital costs as the main reason for increases in health-insurance premiums.

30 Oct 2010

Today's Op-Eds: Competition among insurers; health reform and hospital cuts; Medicare reimbursement crisis

The effect of the regulation will be to drive many small insurers from the market and thus to reduce competition for health insurance. The question is whether a reduction in the number of insurers in a given market area invariably is to the disadvantage of the insured. On this point one's memories of Econ 101 can be quite misleading.

30 Oct 2010

LifePoint Hospitals third quarter revenues increase 11.7% to $832.3 million

LifePoint Hospitals, Inc. today announced results for the third quarter and nine months ended September 30, 2010.

29 Oct 2010

Amerigroup third quarter net income increases from $22.5 million to $84.3 million

Amerigroup Corporation today announced that net income for the third quarter of 2010 was $84.3 million, or $1.68 per diluted share, versus net income of $22.5 million, or $0.43 per diluted share, for the third quarter of 2009 and compared to $67.2 million, or $1.31 per diluted share, for the second quarter of 2010.

29 Oct 2010

Good report cards mean more money for nursing homes

Nursing homes that improve their quality of care - and thereby score high on public report cards - might see financial gains.

29 Oct 2010

Public health care supporters call for investigation of Copeman Healthcare Centre

Federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq's recent announcement of her department's investigation into the controversial Sentinelle Health Group in Ottawa has prompted public health care supporters in BC and Alberta to call for a similar review of the Copeman Healthcare Centre.

29 Oct 2010

Health plan costs may cause members to delay care, put families in financial jeopardy

Three million Californians are enrolled in high-deductible health plans, insurance policies that offer consumers a lower monthly premium in return for higher out-of-pocket spending for health care services, according to a new report from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

29 Oct 2010

Inadequate payments prompt insurance companies to raise premiums, avoid low-income market

Millions of Medicare recipients have been forcibly reassigned to different prescription drug plans because Part D reimbursements to insurance companies covering low-income patients are lower than the actual costs incurred, according to a study released online today by Health Affairs. The report describes how a system designed to encourage competition and to subsidize care for low-income Medicare patients instead has led companies to raise their premiums in an effort to price themselves out of the low-income segment of the Part D market.

29 Oct 2010

VCU Massey receives grant to expand cancer research community program

Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center recently was awarded a two-year, $2.4 million grant from the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission (Tobacco Commission) to expand the breadth of the center's community involvement and to grow its state-of-the-art clinical research and cancer specialist delivery system.

29 Oct 2010

Hospital group and physicians looking at ACOs; Harvard to open primary care education center

In an Oct. 27 letter to the CMS, the Federal Trade Commission and HHS inspector general's office, the Federation of American Hospitals offered comments on accountable care organizations.

29 Oct 2010

Countdown on as Republicans ready health repeal agenda, Democrats continue push

Kaiser Health News' Health on the Hill, examines advertisements about the new health law in a video conversation. Many Democrats, concerned that voters view the measure in a negative light, continue to not mention health reform.

29 Oct 2010

Talecris third quarter net revenue increases 2.8% to $407.0 million

Talecris Biotherapeutics Holdings Corp. today announced its financial results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2010 and filed its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

29 Oct 2010

Return of the doc cuts threatens access, physician-group lobby says, again

Pending Medicare cuts could mean physician practices would back away from the program, according to a trade group representing these doctor groups, Medscape reports.

29 Oct 2010

More details of the health law revealed as implementation unfolds

The law imposes stringent restrictions on physician-owned hospitals, which critics say cherry pick the lucrative specialty patients community hospitals depend on to stay afloat, Kaiser Health News/USA Today report.

29 Oct 2010

Today's Op-Eds: Medicare rip-offs; Courts and the individual mandate; Accountable care

Instead of getting hung up on labels adopted in the heat of political battle, they should focus instead on Supreme Court precedents that found that taxes designed to influence behavior, like taxes to deter the sale of particularly dangerous firearms, were constitutional, provided they raised revenue in the process.

29 Oct 2010

Medicare News and Research

Races tighten over health overhaul issues as clock ticks down to midterm elections

Health reform implementation: Insurance options, states and exchanges, ACOs

Providers brace for health overhaul, seek to improve quality

HHS approves hundreds more local Gov'ts, businesses, unions for early retiree health program

Medicare pilots deliver mixed savings results

State Watch: R.I. group experiments with payment reform; Ariz. dispute over abortion; Vt. and Feds to end monitoring of caregivers

Today's Op-Eds: Competition among insurers; health reform and hospital cuts; Medicare reimbursement crisis

LifePoint Hospitals third quarter revenues increase 11.7% to $832.3 million

Amerigroup third quarter net income increases from $22.5 million to $84.3 million

Good report cards mean more money for nursing homes

Public health care supporters call for investigation of Copeman Healthcare Centre

Health plan costs may cause members to delay care, put families in financial jeopardy

Inadequate payments prompt insurance companies to raise premiums, avoid low-income market

VCU Massey receives grant to expand cancer research community program

Hospital group and physicians looking at ACOs; Harvard to open primary care education center

Countdown on as Republicans ready health repeal agenda, Democrats continue push

Talecris third quarter net revenue increases 2.8% to $407.0 million

Return of the doc cuts threatens access, physician-group lobby says, again

More details of the health law revealed as implementation unfolds

Today's Op-Eds: Medicare rip-offs; Courts and the individual mandate; Accountable care

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