In a prelude to what could be draconian cuts in payments to Medicare Advantage plans, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced several changes in how it review bids for contract renewals. CMS will scrutinize Medicare Advantage companies that don’t cap out of pocket expenses at $3,400 or less to see if they’re discriminating against sicker enrollees. And insurers...
Health Care Industry Archive
March 2009
The recent appointment of David Blumenthal, MD, as National Coordinator of Health Information Technology bodes well for the government’s effort to gain widespread adoption of electronic health records by physicians and hospitals. Most recently the director of the Institute for Health Policy at Massachusetts General Hospital, as well as a Harvard Medical School professor, Blumenthal has...
Physician payments weigh down hospitals – The Maryland Hospital Association reported that the state’s hospitals are in worse shape than the average hospital nationwide. Nearly 60 percent of Maryland hospitals sustained losses in the fourth quarter of 2008. Total margins dropped to a negative 13.5 percent, compared with a 7.8 negative margin for hospitals nationwide. With bad investments...
As if we didn’t already have enough problems in health care, around half of all U.S. laboratories are having trouble finding qualified personnel. That’s an important link in the system, and one that is rarely considered. Previously, we heard about the shortage of nurses, and then about an undersupply of pharmacists—although both of those professions are relatively well-paid. Now a...
The first comprehensive survey of its kind, to be published March 26 in The New England Journal of Medicine, has found that hospitals’ use of electronic health records is very limited. On the basis of responses from 3049 nonfederal acute-care hospitals, only 1.5 percent had what experts considered a comprehensive EHR, and 7.6 percent had a “basic” system that lacked decision support...
By dropping their opposition to charging everyone the same amount for coverage, regardless of health status, health insurers took a major step toward a compromise on healthcare reform. However, the quid pro quo—a government requirement that every individual buy insurance—might be harder to achieve than some people believe. In a surprise move, Karen Ignagni, president of America’s Health...
America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the industry trade association, and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), one of two groups representing small firms, have not always been on the same page. While the pair did work together to kill the Clinton health plan, AHIP opposed the Bush Administration’s proposal to allow small companies to form association health plans so...
The good news about this year’s residency “match,” which places medical students into residency training programs, is that 400 more U.S. medical school seniors applied for these positions in 2009 than in 2008. That, plus the continuing increase in applications from international medical graduates, promises a growing supply of new physicians to serve our rising population. The bad news is...
Evercare, a unit of UnitedHealth Group, is losing its contract to provide coordinated care services to more than 74,000 elderly and disabled Medicaid patients in North Texas. The Texas Health and Human Services Commission terminated the contract, effective May 31, after many patients complained that they were having trouble accessing medical services through Evercare. Patients who are in the...
MedPAC to hospitals: Suck it up - Although hospitals nationwide have seen their average margins go negative, Medicare is still paying them enough, says Glenn Hackbarth, chairman of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC). Testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, Hackbarth did not dispute a projection that the average hospital will lose 6.9 percent this year (an AHA survey...
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