It's more those smoking breaks than healthcare costs that make smokers more expensive employees.
A new analysis by researchers at Ohio State University found that employees who smoke cost private employers $5,816 more a year than nonsmoking employees. Much of the cost, about $3,077, came in lost time from smoking breaks.
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Fledgling accountable care organizations have faced plenty of challenges. Now a group of economists and lawyers are calling for a close look at issues involving insurance, antitrust and other regulation to avoid “unintended consequences.”
Health policy experts Gary Bacher, Michael Chernew, Daniel Kessler and Stephen Weiner write in the latest issue of the policy journal Health Affairs that ACOs could stifle competition among insurers and providers and potentially drive up prices.
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A patient engagement and reporting program linked to financial incentives yielded multiple improvements in health measures for employees of UnitedHealth Group, according to a study published in the August issue of Health Affairs.
UnitedHealth employees enrolled in the health insurance company's Rewards for Health program were able to earn points good for premium reductions as high as $1,200 for family coverage. The rewards program used health screenings targeting diabetes, cancer and other diseases as well as more general weight control based on the worker's body mass index.
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The American Nurses Association wants the federal government to require insurers selling plans on state insurance exchanges to have at least a certain percentage of advanced practice registered nurses in their provider networks.
The ANA proposed the minimum level would be equal to 10% of the number of APRNs who independently bill Medicare Part B in a state.
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Highmark's turn to try to stanch losses at Pittsburgh's West Penn Allegheny Health System has begun.
Roughly 260 workers at the health system were laid off today and another 200 vacant jobs were eliminated. The four-hospital system, the hub of Highmark's new eight-hospital Allegheny Health Network, has hemorrhaged cash and lost patients in recent years. Now the system must shrink accordingly, said Dan Laurent, an Allegheny Health Network spokesman.
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A new report from the Government Accountability Office provides 2013 health plan premiums in the individual market in all 50 states. It provides useful baseline information as insurers shift in 2014 to complying with the federal healthcare reform law's new rules governing the insurance market.
The premium information in the GAO report was taken from data submitted by insurers to the HHS Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight and displayed on the government's health plan finder website, HealthCare.gov.
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Mount Sinai Hospital CEO Dr. Kenneth Davis reportedly sees no antitrust bumps on his organization's path to absorbing Continuum Health Partners into what would be New York City's largest healthcare provider.
The Mount Sinai and Continuum boards just this week signed a definitive agreement. Davis, as paraphrased in the New York Times, said a regional office of the Federal Trade Commission had already given them the all-clear.
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New York insurance regulators today approved rates for health plan offerings on the state insurance exchange in 2014 that they say are on average more than 50% less than premiums for currently available individual-market plans.
For example, for an individual seeking coverage in Manhattan on the New York Health Benefit Exchange in 2014, a standard HMO Aetna plan that currently has a premium of $1,409 a month would cost $688 for an Aetna gold-tier plan.
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It comes as no surprise to many observers that regional health information exchanges are struggling financially.
Research published this week in Health Affairs concluded that “there is a substantial risk that many current efforts to promote health information exchange will fail.”
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Here's a health reform snafu that many Americans will benefit from.
Older smokers are likely to pay less for health insurance in 2014 because of a computer system glitch that the Obama administration said would limit the penalties insurers could charge tobacco users under the ACA.
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Here's a health reform snafu that many Americans will benefit from.
Older smokers are likely to pay less for health insurance in 2014 because of a computer system glitch that the Obama administration said would limit the penalties insurers could charge tobacco users under the ACA.
Read more »
