Reimbursement
Americans working to improve their eating and activity habits often fail, and not for lack of investment by employers, insurers and wellness vendors. Despite, or perhaps because of those challenges, Cigna is taking another crack at the problem.
The nation's highest rated health plan is going through some growing pains and trying to make it to 2015 intact.
Nationally, the new individual exchange market seems competitive going into its second year, with a variety of plans and reasonable premium increases. At the local level, though, consumers may experience some havoc.
The Affordable Care Act is injecting billions upon billions of dollars to provide Medicaid to previously uninsured people. More money should help healthcare providers' finances, not hurt them. So what's going on?
The Affordable Care Act's online insurance exchanges launched this weekend with far fewer problems and less fanfare than last year. Many people qualified for federal subsidies that kept their monthly premiums well under $100.
By most accounts, the federal marketplace that handles enrollment for 37 states is running well, but there are still uncertainties, notably millions of confused American consumers.
For many Americans, the ACA open enrollment period offers them an opportunity to have health insurance for the first time. But for hospitals and healthcare organizations, ACA open enrollments create financial and operational challenges.
Is Medicare adequately meeting the needs of seniors, or are there ways that its core attributes could be improved? Few efforts have tried to understand how the public would change Medicare's basic design.
The Obama Administration will be telling us the website, call centers, and carriers are very busy with people all excited about the Affordable Care Act. They just won't be defining excitement.
Though slower than the worst spikes of the last decade, American companies and their workers continue to see healthcare costs increases, putting pressure on insurers to respond with new exchanges and plan designs.