As physician mergers increase in Indianapolis, a new study has determined that quality at large, multispecialty practices is at
least 5 percent higher and costs are 3.6 percent lower than at small group practices.
The two largest U.S. health insurance companies, UnitedHealth, based in Minnetonka, Minn., and WellPoint Inc., based in Indianapolis,
sell Advantage plans.
The new federal health care bill will put 500,000 more Indiana residents on Medicaid and lead to higher state taxes, Gov.
Mitch Daniels said Monday, but a government insurance proponent said it will help families and businesses.
Sweeping changes phase in slowly for most, but insurers, hospitals, drug companies, employers, workers, medical device makers
and more will eventually feel impact.
Drugmakers and insurers could gain millions of customers under the legislation, but the industry also will pay new fees and
face stricter rules that may shrink profit and fuel mergers.
To pay for the changes, the legislation includes more than $400 billion in higher taxes over a decade, roughly half of it
from a new Medicare payroll tax on individuals with incomes over $200,000 and couples over $250,000.
Insurers WellPoint Inc. and others would get a delay in taxes on premiums and high-cost medical benefits, along with additional
funding for expanding Medicaid, under a White House proposal
Obama, seeking to break an impasse over health-care legislation, proposes a plan that includes the first Medicare tax on unearned
income such as capital gains and higher fees on drugmakers.
State lawmakers say a proposed bill would help people get quicker access to in-home care that most seniors
prefer to nursing homes.
House and Senate versions of health care reform could halt the trend toward physician-owned hospitals.
The Indiana Division of Aging wants to change Medicaid rates to nursing homes to reward quality care and penalize the lack
of it, leaving the industry divided over whether to support the groundbreaking rule or to seek revisions and a slower phase-in.
Six hospital systems, including three in Indiana, have agreed to pay the federal government $8.3 million to settle a whistleblower
lawsuit alleging the hospitals deliberately overcharged Medicare for routine back surgeries.
Companies are helping workers age 65 and above decide whether to forgo their company health insurance and shift to Medicare.
Medicare is becoming more attractive as costs of company policies rise.
If one of the more liberal health care reform proposals becomes law, Hoosier taxpayers would have to spend $425 more per
person every year for the next decade, according to a study released Aug. 4 by Florida-based conservative policy group Arduin
Laffer & Moore Econometrics.
Once again, Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. is running in the lead pack in dollars spent to bend ears on Capitol Hill. And that was even before the health care reform debate got rolling.
Businesses all want to see reform of the health care system, but they diverge on how much the U.S. government’s entrance into
the insurance market would help or hurt them.
Specialist physicians, who have traditionally been fiercely independent, are more and more coming on as employees of hospitals.
Modern-day bounty hunters are preparing to fan out across Indiana as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services expands a program to ferret out fraud and overpayment in the health care system.
