April 26th, 2010 by EvanFalchukJD in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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Giving people “incentives” to spend their money wisely is a growing part of the solution to rising healthcare costs. Give people financial responsibility for their healthcare decisions, the thinking goes, and they’ll make cost-effective choices.
It’s usually done by having people pay part of the cost of their employer-provided health coverage, and through things like higher deductibles and co-pays. Today, on average, people in the private sector pay 20 percent or more of the cost of their coverage. The trend is for this number to go up. But it’s not true everywhere. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at See First Blog*
April 23rd, 2010 by DrWes in Better Health Network, Humor, Opinion
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Proof that cutting costs might affect quality of care — when a new, cheaper answering service at a doctor’s office answers the phone after hours:
“Cardiac electro-psychology. How may I help you?”
Sad, but true. (At least it was worth a chuckle.)
-WesMusings of a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist.
*This blog post was originally published at Dr. Wes*
April 20th, 2010 by BobDoherty in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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Once again, Congress is playing with fire by not enacting a permanent solution to the Medicare SGR (sustainable growth rate) physician payment cut problem.
Congress got itself tied up in knots trying to figure out a way to reverse a 21% cut in Medicare payments to doctors that went into effect yesterday. It ended up agreeing to legislation, which was signed into law late Thursday evening by President Obama, to restore payments to the pre-cut (2009) levels through the end of May.
The action, though, may have come a dollar short and day late. CMS has indicated that it had no choice but to tell carriers to begin processing claims with the 21% cut, starting yesterday. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty*
April 19th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, Opinion
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The large healthcare bill has some very good elements in it that should help the average American.
One is a provision that will kick in in 2011 that says all health insurers will need to spend 85 percent of the premium dollar on actually providing care. This means people may actually receive benefits they pay for. What a concept! Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
April 16th, 2010 by Toni Brayer, M.D. in Better Health Network, Health Policy, News, Opinion
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Corporate Hall of Shame Award
With the United States undergoing the worst recession since the Great Depression and people everywhere worried about the cost of healthcare and how healthcare reform will affect them, isn’t it great to know that some special corporate executives got a 51 percent raise in 2009?
Angela Braly, president and CEO of health insurer WellPoint, got a nice bonus that raised her salary to $13.1 million from $8.7 million the year before. Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at EverythingHealth*
