Christmas present or lump of coal? The administration has announced it will allow persons whose insurance was cancelled because it didn't comply with standards under the reform law to not comply with the individual mandate next year or to comply by buying a bare-bones policy. Cold comfort for millions who were happy with the health insurance they had.
According to an Ipsos poll, 72% of Americans prefer to be cared for by a doctor instead of a nurse practitioner, and a similar number would prefer that a loved one receive care from a physician.
According to a report from a CitiBank analyst, hospital admissions are the weakest in a decade, due to a change in the Medicare observation stay rules and confusion over the health care rollout.
Home Care Delivered, a vendor of home medical supplies for diabetes, wound care and other medical needs, has been recapitalized by FNB Capital Partners.
Congress has passed a short term override of the SGR formula implementation for 2014, avoiding a 24% cut in physician payments from Medicare. A longer term fix appears closer than in past years.
Studies published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggest that pharmacogenetics may not provide much assistance in improving dosing and management of blood thinner therapies.
Patient engagement is all the rage but there is not yet good evidence that it helps improve patient safety, according to a survey of research on the topic published in the BMJ Quality & Safety.
According to the Private Exchange Evaluation Collaborative, 45% of employers either are or plan to utilize a private health insurance exchange and an additional 15% would send employees to the public exchanges for health benefits, but there is concern about the stability of these entities.
Wildflower Health, which provides mobile solutions to help health plans engage members and whose first product is a maternity care management tool, has raised an initial round of financing.
Maxwell Health has raised $6 million in financing for its SAAS platform to help manage employee benefits and health plans, bringing its total Series A round to $8 million.
HHS issued the rules designed to force health plans to cover people who haven't yet paid their premiums (and who may never do so) after enrolling through the exchanges, transferring the burden of the defective enrollment process from the government to the plans.
For those of use who have been diligently taking our multivitamins every day, bad news, a series of studies suggest they have no benefit. Bad news for the multi-billion dollar multivitamin industry.
According to research published in the journal Healthcare, medical practices participating in the Physician Group Practice Demonstration, the forerunner of the ACO concept, had reduced cancer care costs of $721 per patient or 3.9% annually, all attributed to less inpatient care.
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.
The Healthy Skeptic is a website about the health care system, and is written by Kevin Roche, who has many years of experience working in the health industry. Mr. Roche is available to assist health care companies through consulting arrangements through Roche Consulting, LLC and may be reached at khroche@healthy-skeptic.com.