How the Government is Failing Health Tech Startups and What to Do About It
By SUHAS GONDI
As the Senate debated the fate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in Washington this past summer, healthcare was front and center in newspapers and conversations around the country. While insurance coverage and the affordability of care certainly warrant the level of nationwide attention they received, they comprise only one dimension of the systemic deficits in US healthcare: access to care. Meanwhile, the pressing need to reform our broken delivery and payment structures and address the more than $1 trillion of waste in our system was being overlooked by lawmakers in DC.
Luckily, on the other side of the co...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 24, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Tech Source Type: blogs
The Graham-Cassidy Plan: Sweeping Changes In A Compressed Time Frame
Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have proposed a new plan for rolling back key provisions of the Affordable Care (ACA). It is possible that the Senate will vote on this plan in the coming days. The plan has many similarities to the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell assembled during June and July and which failed when considered in the Senate by a vote of 43 to 57.
The Graham-Cassidy plan is built on the premise that the federal government should remove itself from many of the difficult policy decisions concerning how health insurance is subsidized and ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 22, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Joseph Antos and James Capretta Tags: Costs and Spending Featured Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP ACA repeal and replace Bill Cassidy block grants Lindsey Grahm preexisting conditions state waivers Source Type: blogs
The next legislative battle for children ’s health
Twenty years ago, Congress made a commitment to its children when it created the Children’s Health Insurance Program, recognizing working parents who earned too much to qualify for Medicaid still couldn’t afford health insurance for their kids. For pediatricians who remember, the practice landscape was a great deal different then. So many children were uninsured that pediatric emergency rooms were filled with children who needed routine school physicals and regular immunizations. It was the worst way to provide healthcare. Our children’s hospitals were often filled with kids sickened by the absence of health insuranc...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 21, 2017 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/shetal-shah-and-heather-l-brumberg" rel="tag" > Shetal Shah and Heather L. Brumberg < /a > Tags: Policy Pediatrics Public Health & Washington Watch Source Type: blogs
Fewer Uninsured Children, Less Disparity, and Keeping It That Way
As efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) continue to consume Congress, the clock is ticking on federal funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP. The joint federal–state program was enacted 20 years ago to provide coverage to uninsured children whose families earned too much to qualify for Medicaid but couldn’t afford private insurance. At the most recent count, nearly 9 million children up to age 19 had CHIP-funded coverage. But that coverage could be at risk if Congress fails to renew the program’s federal funding, which is set to expire on September 30. Th...
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog - September 21, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: blogs
Non-Emergency Medical Transportation: Will Reshaping Medicaid Sacrifice An Important Benefit?
Medicaid delivers care to 74.5 million individuals for less money than any other large-scale health financing mechanism. A 2016 Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation study noted that “spending per enrollee is lower for Medicaid compared to private insurance after controlling for differences in sociodemographic and health characteristics between the two groups.” One reason might be that Medicaid covers certain inexpensive, non-medical services that, when delivered early in the progression of chronic diseases, can check or slow the diseases, thereby improving beneficiaries’ health and saving money. One non-medical service&...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 20, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Mike Adelberg and Marsha Simon Tags: Medicaid and CHIP Population Health Quality non-emergency medical transportation Section 1115 waiver Source Type: blogs
What Does an Ideal Healthcare System Look Like?
By ASHISH JHA, MD
Austin Frakt and Aaron Carroll recently approached me about a New York Times UpShot piece aiming to rank eight healthcare systems they had chosen: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Singapore, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This forced me to think about a pretty fundamental question: what do we want from a healthcare system?
I would argue that most people want a healthcare system where they can get timely access to high quality, affordable care and one that also promotes innovation of new tests and treatments. But underlying these sentiments are a lot of important issues that nee...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 20, 2017 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: John Irvine Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
CBO Sees Slow Growth For Exchanges; Administration Promotes Agents And Brokers In Marketplaces
On September 14, 2017, the Congressional Budget Office issued its annual report on Federal Subsidies for Health Insurance Coverage for People Under Age 65: 2017 to 2027. The CBO and Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) estimate that in 2017, the federal subsidies, taxes, and penalties associated with health insurance coverage for people under age 65 will result in a net federal subsidy of $705 billion, about 3.7 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP). This amount is projected to rise to $1.2 trillion, or 4.1 percent of GDP by 2027.
About 244 million noninstitutionalized civilians under age 65 have health insur...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 15, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Timothy Jost Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage agents and brokers navigators and assisters Source Type: blogs
HELP Committee Holds Hearing on Individual Health Insurance Market
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee recently held the first hearing of several about ways to stabilize premiums and help individuals in the individual insurance market. The Committee heard from five different state insurance commissioners regarding their experiences with the individual insurance marketplaces under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Most of the testimony focused on the need to fund cost-sharing reduction (CSR) payments, increase flexibility under the ACA’s section 1332 waiver program and establish a federal reinsurance program. There was bipartisan interest in stabili...
Source: Policy and Medicine - September 15, 2017 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Investing To Save: Marketing Builds Stable Marketplaces And Saves Money
How to stabilize individual health insurance markets and lower premiums for consumers is rightly one of the hot button issues before policy makers at the state and national levels. Providing ongoing direct funding of the cost-sharing reduction subsidies and creating a national reinsurance program are among the good ideas getting appropriate attention.
What is getting far too little attention, however, is another proven way to increase enrollment, lower premiums, save consumers money, and encourage health plan participation to stabilize the markets: making major investments in marketing and outreach.
Marketing is one of the...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 13, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Peter V. Lee Tags: Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage ACA marketing ACA Marketplaces risk mix Source Type: blogs
Census Bureau Finds Health Coverage Stabilization; Oregon 1332 Waiver Open For Comment
On September 12, 2017, the United States Census Bureau released its report on Health Insurance Coverage in the United States for 2016. The report is based on data collected by the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement and American Community Survey. The report summarizes the status of the American insured and uninsured population during the last year of the Obama presidency, thus creating a baseline for what follows.
After a sharp drop in the number of the uninsured and expansion of insurance coverage following the full implementation of the Affordable Care Act in 2014, insurance ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 13, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Timothy Jost Tags: Featured Following the ACA Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP Census Bureau Medicaid expansion Oregon Section 1332 waivers Source Type: blogs
New Census Data: Number of Uninsured Dropped by 1 Million in 2016, with Young Adults Continuing to Make Large Gains
The number of uninsured Americans under age 65 declined by an additional 1 million people in 2016, three years after the major insurance reforms of the Affordable Care Act took effect, according to U.S. Census Bureau survey released today.
(Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog)
Source: The Commonwealth Fund: Blog - September 12, 2017 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: blogs
School-Based Health Clinics: Critical Access Points For Confronting The Addiction Epidemic
It is undoubtedly a critical time in this country to address the complexities of how to effectively prevent, treat, and help people recover from substance use disorders. As many parts of the country struggle to reduce the impact of the current opioid epidemic and help people rebuild their lives, others are contending with the new reality of cannabis legalization and the possible implications for youth.
Meanwhile, others are calling attention to rising rates of alcohol use, high-risk drinking, and alcohol use disorders, particularly among women, older adults, racial/ethnic minorities, and the socioeconomically disadvantaged...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - September 12, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Alexa Eggleston Tags: Featured GrantWatch Health Professionals Organization and Delivery Access addiction alcohol abuse Conrad N. Hilton Foundation Health Care Delivery Health Philanthropy Health Promotion and Disease PreventionGW LGBTQ marijuana Ment Source Type: blogs
Why Houstonians Didn't Buy Flood Insurance
Thousands of Houston-area homeowners will face massive, uninsured losses due to flood damage. Few homeowners buy flood insurance unless they are required to, and it ' s only mandatory for homes with mortgages located in FEMA-defined high-risk flood zones. People tend to ignore low-probability risks. (Source: The RAND Blog)
Source: The RAND Blog - September 12, 2017 Category: Health Management Authors: Lloyd Dixon; Noreen Clancy Source Type: blogs
Women's access to healthcare improved with Obamacare
The number of uninsured women in the U.S. fell by nearly a half, from 19 million in 2010 to 11 million in 2016. (Source: Healthcare IT News Blog)
Source: Healthcare IT News Blog - September 8, 2017 Category: Information Technology Tags: Government & amp; Policy Women In Health IT Source Type: blogs
