Category: Insurance
The use of overnight sleep testing has soared. One reason, critics say: testing is a lucrative business for doctors.
International surrogate-pregnancy business booms. What is Medicare anyway? Five ways to cut health-care costs. And playing Medicare ‘Whac-A-Mole’
The much celebrated, and much maligned, public option may have died in Congress, but it’s alive and well in California.
Many veterans on Medicaid qualify for the more generous benefits offered by the VA. Washington state’s program has helped these vets obtain those benefits while a the same time helped reduced costs for the state’s cash-strapped Medicaid program. Two state officials explain how the program works.
Two years after the passage of the federal health law, more than 40 percent of people say they know little or nothing about how it will affect them. Now a new book in adult comic-strip for seeks to explain the ins and outs of the new legislation.
The recession had a lot to do with the trend: With fewer people insured, and private insurers generally picking up less of the cost, patients went to the doctor and hospital less.
A pick of the best articles about health from this week: Rick Santorum’s war on contraception, the “Fat Trap” that makes is so hard to lose weight, and even with health care reform millions will remain uninsured.
“I practiced for 30 years without knowing how long patients waited to see me,” says Dr. Robert Mecklenburg of Seattle’s Virginia Mason. After meeting with employers, “you realize how important it is to see patients when they need to be seen,” Mecklenburg says,. “Any wait is not OK.”
Some companies are also penalizing employees who don’t give up cigarettes by hitting them with higher health insurance premiums.
The two Republican candidates were strongly for the individual mandate . . . before they were against it.
Among the trends that drove down the state’s rankings this year were rises in the rates of obesity, diabetes, and smoking — and a decline in high school graduation rates.
Americans continue to struggle to pay their medical bills, and even the 2010 health care overhaul may not ease their financial burden.
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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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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