MANTOOTH: Companies bogged down by employees’ poor health
The problem is, too many people make unhealthy choices and the consequences of these choices become everyone’s problem.
Health Care Costs
Articles
Reform could create more ’boutique’ doctors
Health reform could accelerate trend toward two tiers of care, with concierge services like Dr. Matt Priddy offers at the top and long waits and minimal attention at the bottom.
IU Health LaPorte Hospital eliminates 112 jobs
Hospital President and chief executive officer Thor Thordarson said in a news release the jobs cuts were necessary because of the higher costs facing health care providers.
State slow to move to money-saving home health care
Indiana taxpayers are paying about $300 million a year in nursing home costs despite a state law that would allow the state to save millions while keeping many elderly and disabled Hoosiers in their homes or with family members.
Anthem: Global payments coming back
Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield’s vision for accountable care organizations foresees doctors and hospitals shifting to global capitation payments and employers getting bigger discounts if they allow their workers access only to health care providers in a specific organization.
State’s top anti-smoking agency could be abolished
Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation, formed in 2001 and funded by money from a settlement with the tobacco industry, may be consolidated into the state Department of Health as a budget-cutting measure.
Indiana’s anti-tobacco agency’s first decade mixed
Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation officials acknowledge they still have work to do in a state that in 2008 had the nation's highest smoking rate and still has more than 1 million smokers.
Q&A
Susan Rider is an employee-benefits account manager at Indianapolis-based Gregory & Appel Insurance. On July 1, she will become president of the Indiana State Association of Health Underwriters. She spoke about the first-year impact of the 2010 health reform law and further changes to come.
Health insurers diversify away from regulations
One year after President Obama signed the health reform overhaul, health insurers are buying less-regulated companies in a bid to offset the lower profits and growth they expect the law to cause.
Self-funded plans draw small-firm interest
In the face of new health reform restrictions, expect more small employers to opt for self-funded health benefits, concludes a report this week from Indianapolis-based United Benefit Advisors.
RATHKE: My saga of staying up to date on health care reform
Human resources used to be about payroll and benefits. Now it’s also about watching Congress.
Indianapolis couple offers seniors a senior housing alternative
Unusual home on south side has a dozen bedrooms for folks who need to give up their own homes.
Health insurance costs spike worldwide
Think galloping health insurance costs are a problem unique to American employers? Think again. Medical costs paid by employer-focused health insurers rose by an average of 10 percent last year—identical to the United States.
Community wins sweepstakes for Johnson partnership
Community Health Network won a three-way race for a close partnership with Johnson Memorial Hospital, besting Franciscan St. Francis and Indiana University Health.
Judge’s ruling raises uncertainty for health care execs
After a federal judge in Florida struck down the entire health reform law, investors shrugged. But the uncertainty for executives in health care companies increased.
Execs from WellPoint, peers meet to hone health-law lobby
Top executives from WellPoint Inc. and UnitedHealth Group Inc. are meeting almost monthly with their counterparts from Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp. and Humana Inc. in an informal lobbying alliance aimed at blunting parts of the health-care law, say sources with knowledge of the sessions.
LAMKIN: Health care reform is opportunity to reorganize services
Indiana should take advantage of the opportunity to build a comprehensive exchange.
Can video games be good for your health?
Local companies are embedding stealthy video messages for high school and college students.
Q&A: Derek Bang
Derek Bang, practice leader of health care advisory services at the Crowe Horwath accounting firm in Indianapolis, spent a week in March studying health care in the United Kingdom, especially its universal health care program. He was surprised by the “daily barrage of criticism” he heard about the National Health Service, but also found that the United Kingdom and United States face very similar issues when it comes to constraining growth in health care costs.
WellPoint’s New York rate hike to face scrutiny
WellPoint Inc. and other U.S. health insurers will have to provide justification for any increases to customers’ premiums of more than 10 percent next year, according to federal regulations published Tuesday.