Policy and Legislation
Medicaid pays for more than 62 percent of all long-term care (LTC) costs in this country so programs to encourage more people to carry long-term care insurance may be needed to lessen the burden to the federal insurance program to the poor.
So far California has received $910 million in federal grants to launch its new health insurance exchange under the Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare").
The payment of higher Medicare rates to physicians and hospitals in regions that have good health outcomes and lower costs, while reducing payment rates where there is lesser quality and higher costs will not drive individual providers to deliver care more efficiently reports the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
Healthcare is part of the service industry and increased competition amongst providers should lead to cost stabilization and advancements in healthcare services. Unfortunately, multiple barriers limit the healthcare industry from behaving like other service industries.
New research from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that hospitals can expect to pull in an additional $293.9 billion dollars between 2013 and 2022 if all states opt to expand Medicaid as outlined in the Affordable Care Act.
Celebrating its third anniversary this weekend, the Affordable Care Act has shown demonstrable benefits, but those are no guarantee of overall success.
Cancer drug shortages are forcing treatment changes and delays that for some patients have led to worse outcomes, more therapy-related complications and higher costs, according to a national survey of health professionals published Thursday.
A report released in February found that state scope of practice laws and payment policies are two of the biggest challenges to expanding care provided by nurse practitioners.
Even though 2 percent reductions are scheduled to hit Medicare payments due to sequestration cuts beginning on April 1, a recent Standard & Poor's (S&P) report said the futures outlook for for-profit hospitals is stable.
The Congressional Budget Office's reduced estimate of the cost of an SGR repeal may offer an opportunity for the Congress to act, MedPAC said in its annual report to Congress.