Strand Diagnostics lost a key court battle on July 30 when a federal judge in Indianapolis granted summary judgment in favor of the Medicare program, which has refused to reimburse Strand for its test since 2012.
With this year’s bill estimated at $37 billion and counting, perhaps the sheer cost of cleaning up after IT security breaches at health care organizations will spur the industry to find a bandage for its hemorrhaging computer systems.
Aetna Inc. agreed to buy Humana Inc., the second-largest provider of private Medicare insurance, for $37 billion in cash and stock to broaden its health-care coverage.
For at least 20 years, Republicans have been pushing for giving tax credits to help individuals buy health insurance. The Supreme Court’s latest Obamacare ruling does Republicans the favor of preserving them.
But hospitals’ list prices in Indiana are more than three times what the federal Medicare program pays.
If Anthem merged with Cigna Corp. it would create a behemoth with even greater negotiating power, which could benefit employers but hurt doctors and hospitals.
Wall Street analysts say a purchase of Louisville-based Humana Inc., which reportedly has put itself up for sale, would by Indianapolis-based Anthem. An Anthem-Humana marriage would be the biggest merger in the history of U.S. health insurance.
The individual hospital campuses around Indianapolis saw their collective revenue rise 8 percent and their collective operating profits rise 22 percent from from 2011 to 2013. That’s solid, just not stellar, growth.
In Indiana, Anthem has struck accountable care organization deals with 14 health care provider groups and signed up nearly 2,900 primary care providers to its medical home program. And it’s pushing for more in the future.
For employer health plans, diabetics generate $10,000 more per year in medical bills than non-diabetics. That means the rise in the prevalence of diabetes over the past 25 years is costing Hoosiers an extra $2.6 billion annually.
Anthem Inc.’s brand has taken a noticeable hit since a massive data breach earlier this year, but the impact was blunted by positive perceptions of the way the company handled the breach.
Things got quiet after a wave of hospital systems' acquiring physician practices swept through central Indiana from 2008 to 2011. But a new wave could start now that Congress passed the "doc fix" last week.
A recent ranking of health care value in all 50 states puts Indiana in the basement. By my rough figures, working-age Hoosiers are paying a couple billions dollars extra for their health care.
The Senate gave final congressional approval late Tuesday to the $214 billion bipartisan measure, which rewrites how Medicare pays doctors for treating over 50 million elderly people.
One-third of Indiana’s buyers on Obamacare exchanges were new to their health plans this year—tying Indiana for sixth among the 37 states using the federal exchange.
Through partnerships with county-owned hospitals, Indiana’s nursing homes pulled in about $260 million last year in extra federal funds. That means participating nursing homes enjoyed a 10 percent bonus check.
After cutting staff sharply in 2013, Franciscan enjoyed more revenue and big profits in 2014. The key question for its and other hospitals’ future is whether they can keep up these gains in productivity to handle looming payment cuts from Obamacare.
The future of U.S. health care will be about precision and parsimony. And Roche Diagnostics Corp. think its new line of DNA-level testing machines are just what the doctor ordered.
Since Obamcare was expected to boost insurance coverage nationally by 32 million people, drugmakers like Eli Lilly and Co. stood to benefit. But it’s not working out that way. At least not for Lilly.
Recognizing that more and more Hoosier patients are trying to shop for health care, the Indiana Hospital Association has created a web tool with price and quality information for all hospitals around the state. But bigger changes to the health care system will be needed before consumers have the kind of information they expect in other industries.
