The benefits of expanding Medicaid coverage to homeless and chronically ill adults under healthcare reform may seem obvious. But enrolling this population and providing them with healthcare services will not be easily achieved, a survey published in Health Affairs shows.
The survey, which included more than 700 homeless adults enrolled in a housing and healthcare effort between 2004 and 2009, found adults reported “serious physical and mental health conditions, suggesting that chronically homeless adults have a wide variety of health needs that require a broad range of health services.”
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Hospital leaders have warned state elected officials that failure to expand their Medicaid programs under the federal healthcare reform law will imperil the finances of many hospitals serving lower-income communities. They say they need the expansion to continue serving uninsured and underinsured people who have no way to pay for care.
Now a not-for-profit hospital system in North Carolina says it's closing one of its facilities because that state decided not to expand Medicaid to adults earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level. Vidant Health, with nine hospitals, says it will close Vidant Pungo Hospital, a 25-bed facility in the coastal town of Belhaven, within six months, costing about 100 employees their jobs.
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But wait, there's more!
For those who know they exist, the state health insurance exchanges set to open next month are primarily a vehicle by which the reform law will offer individuals, families and small businesses a choice of health plans and an opportunity to receive a federal premium subsidy.
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The news Thursday that the Internal Revenue Service will recognize same-sex marriages, no matter where the couples live, will have healthcare implications.
They're not necessarily positive ones, according to Brian Haile, senior vice president for healthcare policy at Jackson Hewitt Tax Service.
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Two years ago, Florida Hospital successfully sought a state license to operate its own health plan. That plan soon stalled, as officials realized the cost and time required to build an insurance arm would be too great.
A faster route, they decided, would be to buy one.
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A large North Carolina hospital and a suburban Chicago system are the latest to trim their payrolls and point to revenue pressure from the federal healthcare reform law as a primary cause.
At Mission Hospital in Asheville, N.C., the belt-tightening hits the C-suite, including the CEO's salary.
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Have you heard this joke before?
How do you know when a total joint implant sales rep is at the hospital? When the orthopedic surgeons' cars aren't the nicest ones in the parking lot.
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Minuteman Health, a not-for-profit, consumer-governed health plan sponsored by Vanguard Health Systems and Tufts Medical Center, said Monday that it received an HMO license and premium rate approval from Massachusetts regulators.
The plan will offer individual and small-group plans both on and off Massachusetts' state insurance exchange starting in October.
Minuteman is one of the Consumer Operated and Oriented plans in 24 states around the country made possible by startup loans authorized by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The goal is to encourage the launch of consumer-friendly plans that foster greater competition in the insurance market. While other co-op plans around the country previously received approval to sell plans on state insurance exchanges, what sets Minuteman apart is that it was originally sponsored by two major hospital systems. Many of the co-op plans were organized by groups and individuals not associated with major providers or investor-owned companies like Vanguard.
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As healthcare reform expands coverage, nonphysician providers are seeking to expand their portfolio of licensed services and are facing intense opposition from doctors to their efforts.
In California, three bills before the Legislature propose to expand the scope of practice for nurse practitioners, optometrists and pharmacists, with one bill advancing and two bills being stalled.
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Lee
Some of California’s top insurers, including Kaiser Permanente, are protesting the state’s plans to drop quality ratings from insurance listings when its exchange goes public on Oct. 1.
Covered California executive director Peter Lee told the Los Angeles Times that the data behind existing quality ratings were too out of date. He also fears the plans sold on the exchanges will be very different from the individual policies that formed the basis for the star-based grades (this is movie-land).
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The not-for-profit group responsible for educating Americans about the healthcare reform law's coverage options provided a status check of its efforts on Monday, but remained vague about how much it is spending on the massive endeavor.
Throughout 2014, Enroll America will spend “tens of millions” of dollars on the “Get Covered” campaign that it launched in late June, Anne Filipic, the group's president, told reporters in a phone call.
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