Keehan
Ascension Health, Bon Secours Health System, the American Hospital Association, the Catholic Health Association and the Federation of American Hospitals are among more than 900 organizations, providers and businesses helping Americans learn about the healthcare reform law and sign up for health insurance coverage, HHS announced one day before open enrollment begins on the law's health insurance exchanges.
Called “Champions for Coverage,” these volunteers—which include faith-based organizations, community health centers and bloggers—will use digital and print materials from the CMS to educate people about their options in the state health insurance exchanges that were created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Open enrollment on the exchanges will last from October through March, and those who enroll by Dec. 15 will have coverage starting on Jan. 1, 2014.
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Most of the people who come to the emergency room with gunshot wounds have no insurance, and if they're admitted as inpatients, hospitals will spend an average of $23,500 caring for them, according to a new study of gun trauma and healthcare costs.
But the study from the Urban Institute found that gunshot victims' uninsured status may affect their care. “Uninsured victims of firearm assaults appear to have different treatment when they arrive at the ED. Their ED visits are the most expensive, they are admitted for inpatient care less often, and their treatment, once admitted, appears to be less intensive,” the study says. “The numbers indicate that some hospitals may be making treatment decisions based on the insurance status of the patient rather than the patient's condition.”
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Serious and potentially fatal dental infections are the cause of a growing number of hospitalizations, according to a study in the September edition of the Journal of Endodontics.
The study covered a nine-year period, from 2000 to 2008, using data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample. The NIS is the largest publicly available all-payer inpatient-care database in America.
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Watch out, community hospitals. The proposed merger between Tenet Healthcare Corp. and Vanguard Health Systems is expected to increase pressure on already-struggling stand-alone facilities in the markets where the two chains operate.
While the deals, Moody's Investors Service says the combination of two “large and powerful systems” will be a force to be reckoned with. In particular, Tenet will have more leverage to lure physicians away from smaller hospitals and will be able to take advantage of back-office economies of scale that will help reduce costs at a time of shrinking reimbursement and increased pressure on volumes.
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