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People in state high-risk insurance plans often feel left behind
The federal health law set up new plans that are cheaper and more comprehensive than the older ones run by states but consumers need to go without insurance for six months to qualify.
Author Archive: Michelle Andrews
Some doctors refusing to treat kids who have not been immunized
These pediatricians say they are worried about other patients in the waiting room, some of them too young to be immunized or with health problems that compromise their immune systems.
Answers to readers’ insurance questions
If you’re injured after drinking, can your insurer refuse to pay? Do privacy rules keep insurers from talking to you about your spouse’s coverage? Does colonoscopy coverage include polyp removal? Yes, no and maybe.
Health writer braves Canadian health system — and survives!
“Although comparing costs and bills is tricky, by any measure my evening in the Canadian emergency department was a good deal.”
Health law bolsters funding for in-school clinics
Can school-based clinics undermine the parent-child relationships and interfere with the child’s relationship with his or her primary care provider?
New tests and treatments for sleep disorders
Now, doctors with special training diagnose and treat more than 80 sleep disorders — from obstructive sleep apnea to narcolepsy — at special centers with labs where a patient’s every sleeping moment may be recorded and measured.
Appealing an insurer’s denial is often a good strategy
A government study finds beneficiaries often win when they appeal.
Out-of-network ambulance rides can bring big out-of-pocket expenses
Consumers, who often don’t have a choice of ambulance services, can be left holding the bill when insurers refuse to pay the entire cost.
Insurer cuts premiums as industry prepares for new health reform rules
Under the new health-reform law, insurers beginning this year must spend at least 80 percent of the premium dollars they collect on medical claims or quality improvement efforts. That has prompted Aetna in Connecticut to move to cut its premium for individual policies 10 percent.
Emergency care, but not at a hospital
One Saturday evening when Phil Dyer was puttering around the garden of his home in Issaquah, he felt his heart begin to race, and his throat constricted so much that he could barely breathe. His wife drove him to the emergency department, a freestanding facility two miles away that’s operated by Swedish Medical Center.
More workplace clinics offering primary care
The cost of a clinic generally makes it feasible only for employers with at least several hundred workers, but smaller companies are banding together to operate joint clinics.
The old practice of house calls returning to some areas
Some primary-care practitioners are bringing their black bags directly to home or office, in some cases for as little as $30 to $35 a visit.
Q&A: My daughter with a pre-existing condition lost her insurance, what can we do?
Michelle Andrews answers a question from a mother whose daughter lost her insurance and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. What are her options to get coverage?
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