Policy and Legislation

Governors criticize ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to Medicaid

The California-based Integrated Healthcare Association has been awarded a three-year, $2.9 million grant from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

Medicare costs in the last six months of life are influenced more by patient characteristics - such as ability to function, the severity of the illness and family support - than by regional factors, such as the number of hospital beds available, according to a study published in The Annals of Internal Medicine.

A new report has found that hospitals are falling short of the Joint Commission's language access requirements for patients with limited English.

With Constitutional challenges to the individual mandate now threatening the very life of the new health care law, Republicans aren't the only ones that would like to see it jettisoned and replaced with something better.

While the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is federal law, much of its implementation is in the hands of the states. Near the top of the list on the state's to-do list is the creation, design and operation of the health insurance exchanges.

The need to drive down the cost of healthcare will be one of several factors leading to a $2.3 billion worldwide market for in vitro diagnostic company sales to physician office labs this year, according to healthcare market research firm Kalorama Information.

Amid tepid enrollment, the Department of Health and Human Services has renewed efforts to increase awareness of the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP), the government's temporary insurance plan for those denied private insurance due to pre-existing conditions.

During the healthcare reform debates of 2009, there were angry confrontations that nothing in the legislation would address rising healthcare costs.

A new report issued by the Government Accountability Office has found that one-out-of-three Medicare Advantage beneficiaries is in a plan spending more than 15 percent of its projected Medicare payments on overhead and profit.