Obamacare rebates total $22.6M in Indiana
Indiana consumers are set to receive rebates that are 59 percent larger this year as Obamacare continues to force health insurers to refund premiums that exceed actual medical claims by more than 20 percent.
Health Care Costs
Articles
WellPoint’s respite from criticism will be short-lived
With recent attention focused on hospital prices, WellPoint and its peers have been enjoying a nice break from their long-running status as Public Enemy No. 1 in the nation’s health care debate. They shouldn’t expect it to last.
IT revolution coming to local health care
Local providers will increasingly look for help from IT firms like Indigo Biosystems Inc. and VoCare Inc. as part of a coming wave of health IT innovation that is likely to mirror the IT revolution that began 30 years ago.
Medicare report a fresh threat to local hospital finances
A new recommendation from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, if enacted, would likely end one of the ways Indianapolis-area hospitals have generated healthy revenue from their recent spree of physician acquisitions.
Hospitals, insurers should end hide-and-seek with prices
To get control of health care spending, prominent health policy wonks are calling for new rules requiring hospitals and insurers to raise the ‘veil of secrecy’ they have thrown over their prices for decades.
Hospitals proving themselves wrong about prices
Whenever a new report claims hospitals are charging too much, a stock set of defenses comes out. But hospitals are cutting prices and expenses as we speak, undermining those arguments.
Are employers ready to limit workers’ choice of doctor?
The real test of so-called narrow network health plans will come not with Obamacare's exchanges, but with employers, who control a far bigger slice of the health benefits pie and have been highly reluctant to limit their workers' choice of hospitals and doctors.
Are employers ready to limit workers’ choice of doctor?
The real test of so-called narrow network health plans will come not with Obamacare’s exchanges, which cater to individuals, but with employers, who control a far bigger slice of the health benefits pie and have highly reluctant to limit their workers' choice of hospitals and doctors.
Are hospitals on trajectory to pair up?
Indianapolis-area hospitals are undergoing such profound and permanent changes that some predict, eventually the four major hospital systems will merge and shrink down to two.
Think again: Why Obama’s disclosure of hospital charges won’t help you
In the first post on my new blog, The Dose, I explain why the recently released Medicare charge data are meaningless for everyone but uninsured patients.
New WellPoint CEO Joe Swedish thrives on complexity
Joe Swedish, a career hospital executive, is now two months into his job at the helm of Indianapolis-based WellPoint, the nation’s second-largest health insurer. In his first interview since starting work, Swedish indicated he’s taking his time to learn the people and the culture of the vast organization he now leads.
Forecast: Cash to reign in health care
With premiums for health insurance likely to head north next year as President Obama’s health care reform law fully takes effect, both individuals and employers will pay for more health care out of their own funds and buy less insurance.
Study rebuts hospitals’ argument on Medicare, rising costs
Rather than raising prices on private health insurers to make up for inadequate payments from the government, hospitals across the country have been raising prices just because they can, according to a new study.
IU Health to chop $1 billion off costs
Even though Obamacare likely will expand health insurance coverage to an extra 500,000 Hoosiers over the next few years, IU Health expects per-patient reimbursements to fall as the federal government, employers and patients all push back on sky-high health care costs.
MCDONALD: Groups making headway attacking health problems
The statistics we hear so often are clear. As a community, we are not in an enviable place. We smoke more, exercise less and weigh more than the national average, resulting in more diabetes than average.
Medical finance driving major changes in health care marketplace
Brian and Emily Kahn had virtually identical physical therapy. He paid much more than she did. Why? Because of where the therapy took place.
Indiana’s health care transparency laws get failing grade
Indiana’s laws requiring hospitals to release price information are woefully inadequate, according to a report by two health insurance reform groups. Indiana was among 29 states to receive an "F" grade.
Senate advances telemedicine payments
The Indiana Senate voted unanimously last week to require the Indiana Medicaid program to pay home health agencies, rural health clinics and federally qualified health centers for doing medical consultations, diagnoses and monitoring using videoconferencing, telephones or computers.
Sequester could sap $200M from Indiana health care providers
The sequestration plan kicking in Friday will chop Medicare payments to hospitals, doctors and nursing homes by 2 percent, beginning April 1. One study estimates that the cuts could result in 10,000-plus job losses in Indiana alone.
Legislators struggle to nail down cost of health care expansion
The cost of health care for an additional 400,000 low income residents is something nobody in the Indiana Statehouse seems to be able to agree upon this year, even as the crucial decision about whether to expand Medicaid bears down on lawmakers midway through their annual session.