The battle lines on health care reform are being drawn, not between Republicans (who have no real power) and Democrats, but between Democrats like Sen. Max Baucus who favor a public plan with a small “p,” or would even kick that can down the road, and those like Sen. Kennedy who want a powerful public plan that could easily morph into a single-payer system. But ironically, if the latter win...
Health Care Industry Archive
May 2009
Healthcare Roundup: United Proposes Reforms, Medical Home Update, Tenet Teams with Med3000, and More
United The Reformer – UnitedHealth Group has proposed reforms that it says could save government health programs more than $540 million over the next decade. Under the big insurer’s approach, Uncle Sam would help healthcare providers reduce medical errors, improve chronic disease care, and do better case management. Adoption of evidence-based clinical guidelines and medical homes would also...
Miami-Dade County, one of the most expensive healthcare markets in the country, has teamed up with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida in an effort to lower the number of Miami’s uninsured, who include an estimated 600,000 people. The Florida Blues is offering a new health plan, Miami-Dade Blue, that will use discounts accepted by many local healthcare providers to cut insurance rates. The...
The deal that General Motors just made with the United Auto Workers will require cuts in the medical benefits of retirees, according to papers submitted to union members. And the impending bankruptcy of the embattled auto giant might push those benefits over the edge in a few years. According to Reuters, retiree benefits will be reduced immediately at the direction of the U.S. Treasury, which...
The HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) has approved an unnamed hospital’s petition to reimburse physicians for on-call duties in the emergency department, saying that the hospital payments would not violate the government’s anti-kickback rules. But this is unlikely to have much impact on other hospitals’ payments to physicians for serving ER patients. Although the OIG said it...
Imagine if the rest of the world worked like healthcare. Things would be way more expensive, thanks to waste, duplication and key information that’s hard to access. Quality would be uneven. Fortunately, computers and other technology have come along to help make other sectors of the economy more effective and efficient. If only healthcare could get its act together and embrace IT,...
A new Urban Institute study reminds us that failure to achieve the right kind of healthcare reform is not an option. By 2019, the study forecasts, between 53 million and 66 million U.S. residents will be uninsured. Healthcare spending by individuals and families will rise between 46 percent and 68 percent over the next decade, the study predicts. Government costs for programs like Medicare and...
When three preeminent thought leaders like Elliott Fisher, Donald Berwick, and Karen Davis submit a joint proposal for healthcare reform, attention must be paid. Fisher, a professor at Dartmouth Medical School, has coauthored seminal papers about practice variations across the U.S.; Berwick is the president of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and a coauthor of the Institute of...
Kaiser Opens Farmers’ Markets – Joining the national trend to buy locally grown vegetables and fruits, which are supposedly healthier than the supermarket variety, Kaiser Permanente has opened 30 farmers’ markets at its medical facilities in four states. Fresh produce is also delivered to kitchens in 23 Kaiser hospitals. Meanwhile the northern California division of Kaiser has reinforced...
Buoyed by its AmeriChoice acquisition several years ago, as well as by the recession, UnitedHealth Group is rapidly growing its Medicaid business. In a presentation May 19 at Deutsche Bank’s annual health care conference in Boston, AmeriChoice CEO Rick Jelinek outlined how United is “fostering growth in a reform environment”—the title of his talk. The recession has helped United do this...
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