Category: Healthcare Reform
A week of sick time may be enough if you get hit with the flu or a cold. But what happens when you have a chronic condition, such as Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis or diabetes, and the time off you need exceeds your number of sick days? What protections do you have if you require major surgery?
“Deductibles have gone up. Co-pays have gone up. You see costing-sharing for out-of-network services have gone up . . . . Health care is just continuing to take a bigger bite out of take-home pay.”
Higher prices charged by hospitals, outpatient centers and other providers drove up health care spending at double the rate of inflation during the economic downturn– even as patients consumed less medical care overall
mong people who’ve recently required a lot of care, significant proportions say their treatment was poorly managed, with nearly a third complaining of poor communication among their caregivers. One in eight believe they got the wrong diagnosis, treatment or test.
Rebranding? — The health reform law requires the establishment of insurance exchanges, where consumers will be able to shop for insurance plans that fit basic criteria. But federal officials think it might be clearer for consumers if they called the exchanges “marketplaces” instead.
Many plans have placed specialty drugs in a tier where, instead of a flat co-payment — $20, $50 or some other amount — patients must pay a percentage of the medications’ cost. For people who need specialty drugs, that can amount to tens of thousands of dollars annually.
Tens of millions of adults under 65 — both those with insurance and those without — saw their access to health care dramatically worsen over the past decade, a new study finds. The findings suggest more privately insured Americans are delaying treatment due to rising out-of-pocket costs, while safety net programs for the poor and uninsured are failing to keep up with demand for care.
High-deductible health care plans are no longer a novelty—they are becoming mainstream. How do they work? Are they a good deal? Here is a brief guide to this type of health insurance:
The biggest dollar amounts are expected to go to consumers in Alaska, where per person rebates are expected to average $305, Maryland, $294, Pennsylvania, $243 and Idaho, $241.
Once again, trustees forecast that Medicare’s hospital fund would begin to run out of money beginning in 2024, but, overall, the outlook for the social insurance program that covers nearly 50 million elderly and disabled people was only slightly worse than findings from last year.
Opponents of the Obama administration’s contraceptive coverage mandate — including likely GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney — invoke “religious freedom.” But women’s groups and family planning organizations are convinced that the real objective is to limit access to birth control.
A new database lets you find out the prevailing rates for medical procedures in your area, and the 2010 health-care reform law provides better protection when people receive out-of-network emergency care.
LocalHealthGuide is a health news and information web service for Seattle and the Puget Sound Region. We are independent and unaffiliated with any hospital, medical association or insurer. If you have questions or if your group has an upcoming event that you would like us to cover, please let us know by going to our "Contact Us" page and dropping us a note. -- Michael McCarthy, Editor
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Seattle Times Health News
Lost in translation: Lack of trained interpreters can lead to medical errors
Interpreter services at hospitals and other medical settings are often inadequate, forcing family members, including children, to step in, or the task falls to medical staff members who may not speak the language well.
Some insurers deny ER coverage to people who have been drinking
Laws in more than half the states permit insurers to deny payment for medical services related to alcohol or drug use. Faced with the prospect of not getting paid for care, some ER personnel sidestep the problem by simply not testing patients’ blood or urine for alcohol.
Travel insurance can protect your wallet — and your health on vacation
Think your regular health insurance policy will cover you if you get into medical trouble overseas?
Don’t bet on it.
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