Healthcare plans

A new statewide survey by the Georgia Association of Physician Assistants is stirring debate about the extent to which insurance protocols serve as harmful barriers to patient care or necessary cost controls.

A program including regular follow-ups with nurses and focused attempts to cut back on TV, fast food, and sodas appears to keep some overweight and obese kids from gaining more weight, according to a new study.

A large online survey of medical practices, with nearly 4,600 responses, finds no consensus that electronic health records systems increase physician productivity.

Most health systems adopting an accountable care organization model will lose money during the first three years, according to a report posted on the New England Journal of Medicine Web site.

U.S. health insurers offering private Medicare Advantage plans will see an average net 0.4 percent increase in federal reimbursements next year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said on Monday.

Republicans in the U.S. House accused the AARP of gaining financially from President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul, which the influential elderly advocacy group supported.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a proposed rule March 31 that establishes the Medicare Shared Savings Program authorized in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

While health care costs are inevitably going to rise in the future, a 65-year-old couple retiring in 2011 will likely spend $230,000 on health care throughout their retirement, Fidelity estimates.

Last month, I made the case that health risk assessments are a poor tool for measuring the health of a population or a single individual, and the data they produce are not necessary for the design of good wellness programs. ("No more master key: Health risk assessments unnecessary for wellness plan design," EBN March)

Browsing the Web could soon beat out baseball as the American pastime. Many of your employees use the Internet to research their health care options, their new diagnoses or their new diet. The problem is, there are thousands, if not millions, of health care websites.

Workplace clinics give literal meaning to the phrase "Taking care of our employees." However, savvy-thinking employers are taking strategic steps to determine what's in and what's out when it comes to health services rendered onsite.

The 2010 annual enrollment season saw the opening of the floodgates regarding dependent eligibility, as employers were required under the health care reform law to extend coverage to all dependent children - regardless of student status - to age 26. This includes both married and unmarried dependent children, as well as those who are no longer dependents on their parents' tax returns.

Cigna Corp is expanding its business that provides health coverage to those working abroad by offering a product directly to individuals.

The Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals study evaluates performance in 10 areas: mortality; medical complications; patient safety; average patient stay; expenses; profitability; patient satisfaction; adherence to clinical standards of care; post-discharge mortality; and readmission rates for acute myocardial infarction (heart attack), heart failure, and pneumonia.

Consumers are spending $363 billion a year on ancillary health care, according to a new study by Deloitte.

Contributions from employers to workers’ account-based health plans have dropped for the last two years, the Employee Benefit Research Institute reports.

Most health systems adopting an accountable care organization model will lose money during the first three years, according to a report published March 24 on the New England Journal of Medicine website.

An analysis of 43,600 patient accounts at North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System with balances greater than $50 at discharge shows that when a family's spending on health care exceeds 3.5% of income, a tipping point is reached on the ability to pay.

Customers are actually spending far more on their own health care costs than the government traditionally reports.

An analysis of Fidelity’s 74,000 HSA accounts has revealed several interesting trends regarding contribution rates and spending behavior.