Health Insurance News and Research

RSS

Cheers, jeers for new federal rules on changes in health benefits

Kaiser Health News staff writers Phil Galewitz and Mary Agnes Carey report on the new "grandfather" rule: "Business groups gave mixed reviews Monday to new Obama administration rules limiting how much employers and insurers can change their health insurance plans - while remaining exempt from potentially costly new consumer protections.

16 Jun 2010

First Edition: June 15, 2010

Susan Jaffe, writing for Kaiser Health News in collaboration with The Washington Post, reports: "For consumers looking for bargains on refrigerators or restaurants, ratings can be helpful. But a score card doesn't work as well for selecting a Medicare private health plan" (Kaiser Health News).

15 Jun 2010

CombiMatrix Diagnostics receives final licensure documentation and approvals to begin Medicare billing

CombiMatrix Corporation announced today that its laboratory services subsidiary, CombiMatrix Diagnostics, has received the final licensure documentation and approvals from Medicare in order to begin billing for its suite of array-based diagnostics tests.

15 Jun 2010

ACRO unveils survey findings on decline in physician participation in clinical research

Today, the Association of Clinical Research Organizations (ACRO) unveiled findings from a groundbreaking survey exploring the decline in physician participation in clinical research across the United States and Western European markets at the 46th Drug Information Association (DIA) annual meeting. Over the past decade, the number of physicians participating in clinical research has continued to decrease in the U.S. and countries in Western Europe while participation increased at double digit rates in Asia, Latin America and Central/Eastern Europe.

15 Jun 2010

New regulation on 'grandfathered' health plans

The U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury today issued a new regulation that makes good on President Obama's promise that Americans who like their health plan can keep it.

15 Jun 2010

Health insurance made available to contractors, entrepreneurs and job seekers: oDesk

Contract workers now make up more than one-third of the U.S. workforce, and their ranks are growing at twice the rate of those that are traditionally employed. While contract work gives people the freedom to work when and where they want, it rarely comes with important employer benefits like health insurance. Starting today, oDesk, which connects employers with contractors globally, is making health insurance available to contractors, entrepreneurs, job seekers and anybody looking for an alternative to expiring COBRA benefits or costly individual plans.

15 Jun 2010

AMA's National Health Insurer Report Card helps improve claims processing performance

The American Medical Association today announced that one in five medical claims are processed inaccurately by health insurers, according to the AMA's third annual check-up of the nation's commercial health insurers and the systems they use to manage and pay claims. This was the key finding of the AMA's 2010 National Health Insurer Report Card, which for the first time, benchmarked the overall claims processing accuracy of the nation's largest health insurers.

15 Jun 2010

Senate wrangling on bill with 'doc fix,' Medicaid payments, possible COBRA subsidy

President Barack Obama seems to be losing the battle to include in the jobs bill - also known as the "extender" bill - a continuation of federal subsidies for laid-off workers to help pay for health insurance through COBRA, The Associated Press reports. Sens. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, "who are seeking a vote this coming week, want to attach their nearly $7 billion provision to must-pass legislation that would extend unemployment benefits and make changes in dozens of federal programs.

15 Jun 2010

Behind the Numbers report: Employers' medical costs to increase by 9% in 2011

The nation's employers can expect medical costs to increase by 9 percent in 2011, a decrease of 0.5 percent from the 2010 growth rate, according to the annual Behind the Numbers report published today by the PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Health Research Institute. For the first time, the majority of the American workforce is expected to have a health insurance deductible of $400 or more, as more employers return to "indemnity style" cost-sharing by raising out-of-pocket limits, replacing co-pays with co-insurance and adding high-deductible health plans.

15 Jun 2010

My Insurance Expert to sell, distribute ING Term Life Insurance policies

My Insurance Expert, one of the country's leading online services for the comparison and purchase of affordable health insurance plans, is pleased to announce that it has been appointed to sell and distribute ING Term Life Insurance policies.

14 Jun 2010

Health reform continue to dominate campaigns

After voting "no" on the health reform bill earlier this year, Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga., has gotten significantly less support from colleagues than he did in previous re-election bids, The Hill reports. "Only five lawmakers ... have given money from their personal campaign funds to Barrow in the 2010 cycle. Five other elected Dems gave money to Barrow through their leadership political action committees."

14 Jun 2010

AMA's support for health law sparks infighting

A fissure has developed in the American Medical Association, the powerful physicians' lobby that backed the health reform bill earlier this year, about support for the sweeping measure, according to news reports.

14 Jun 2010

Today's Opinions: Medicare advantage to shrink; Insurers anti-trust protection; Health law regulations; The need for maternity leave

In the long run, there's no getting around the fact that Advantage plans will shrink in generosity and availability (Austin Frakt, 6/14).

14 Jun 2010

Healthcore Media launches dynamic, educational and community-oriented health website

Healthcore Media, LLC has launched http://www.onehealth.com, a dynamic, educational and community-oriented health website that is quickly taking center stage among health portals. Chronic illnesses are at an all-time high, and unbiased medical information and supportive connections with others are taking top priority across the world. One Health has answered the call.

14 Jun 2010

First Edition: June 14, 2010

Today's health policy headlines report on new White House rules on changes to health insurance benefits, a study regarding employers' medical costs and the likely impact of retirements within the health care workforce.

14 Jun 2010

Study finds survival disparities among patients with colorectal cancer

Disparities in cancer stage and treatment are the main reasons why Medicaid-insured and uninsured rectal cancer patients are twice as likely to die within five years as privately insured patients. That is the conclusion of a new study published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Because poorer survival among rectal cancer patients without private insurance is largely attributable to later cancer stage at diagnosis and inadequate treatment, disparities may be lessened through health care reform.

14 Jun 2010

State round-up: Tenn. lawmakers fail to pass bill to opt out of health care law; Mass. officials continue to study hospital sale

Tennessee lawmakers adjourned the 106th General Assembly early Thursday after failing to pass a bill to opt out of the new federal health care law. ... Both chambers passed the budget -- the only piece of legislation they are constitutionally required to adopt -- last week, but spent the last few days wrangling over issues like the federal health care overhaul.

14 Jun 2010

Florida GOP gov. candidate surges despite questions about involvement in Medicare fraud case

Opponents of Florida GOP gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott are questioning Scott's involvement in a health care fraud case when he was the CEO for Columbia/HCA hospital.

14 Jun 2010

Obama, GOP spar on Medicare 'doc fix'

"President Barack Obama Saturday accused Senate Republicans of standing in the way of important legislation that would block deep pay cuts for doctors who care for Medicare patients. Mr. Obama said the majority of the U.S. Congress is ready and willing to prevent a pay cut of 21%. But he used his weekly radio and Internet address to express concern that some Republicans are seeking to block a vote on the issue. If they do, doctors could see the cut in their Medicare payments this week, the president said" (Randall, 6/12).

14 Jun 2010

Trauma patients without insurance more likely to die of injuries than privately insured patients: Study

Trauma patients without insurance are more likely to die of their injuries from auto accidents and gunshot wounds than privately insured patients with similar injuries, according to findings of an analysis of 193,804 patients from 649 facilities conducted by University Buffalo emergency medicine physicians.

14 Jun 2010

Health Insurance News and Research

Cheers, jeers for new federal rules on changes in health benefits

First Edition: June 15, 2010

CombiMatrix Diagnostics receives final licensure documentation and approvals to begin Medicare billing

ACRO unveils survey findings on decline in physician participation in clinical research

New regulation on 'grandfathered' health plans

Health insurance made available to contractors, entrepreneurs and job seekers: oDesk

AMA's National Health Insurer Report Card helps improve claims processing performance

Senate wrangling on bill with 'doc fix,' Medicaid payments, possible COBRA subsidy

Behind the Numbers report: Employers' medical costs to increase by 9% in 2011

My Insurance Expert to sell, distribute ING Term Life Insurance policies

Health reform continue to dominate campaigns

AMA's support for health law sparks infighting

Today's Opinions: Medicare advantage to shrink; Insurers anti-trust protection; Health law regulations; The need for maternity leave

Healthcore Media launches dynamic, educational and community-oriented health website

First Edition: June 14, 2010

Study finds survival disparities among patients with colorectal cancer

State round-up: Tenn. lawmakers fail to pass bill to opt out of health care law; Mass. officials continue to study hospital sale

Florida GOP gov. candidate surges despite questions about involvement in Medicare fraud case

Obama, GOP spar on Medicare 'doc fix'

Trauma patients without insurance more likely to die of injuries than privately insured patients: Study

Bringing real-time analytics to downstream bioprocess monitoring

Designing fluidic architecture for scalable diagnostic platforms

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Latest News