Author's posts
9 States Reopen ACA Insurance Enrollment To Broaden Health Coverage
Some state exchanges have begun allowing new enrollment to help ease consumers’ worry about health care costs. It’s also so the uninsured won’t inadvertently spread the coronavirus by avoiding care.
A New Way Of Paying For Maternity Care Aims To Reduce C-Sections
Instead of paying doctors piecemeal for prenatal appointments and delivery of the baby, some insurers now offer medical practices one lump sum to cover it all.
Why Competition Hasn’t Brought Down The High Price Of Snakebite Treatment
The snakebite antivenin CroFab, on the U.S. market since 2000, now faces competition from a drug called Anavip. But both are expensive. “Perverse incentives” keep prices high, says one legal scholar.
Federal Grants Restricted To Fighting Opioids Miss The Mark, States Say
The U.S. government has doled out at least $2.4 billion in state grants since 2017, specifically targeting the opioid epidemic. Yet drug abuse problems seldom involve only one substance.
Summer Bummer: A Young Camper’s $142,938 Snakebite
The snake struck a 9-year-old hiker at dusk on a nature trail in Illinois. Expensive antivenin and a helicopter ride to the hospital led to big bills that struck her parents a few weeks later.
Hospitals Chafe Under A Medicare Rule That Reduces Payments To Far-Flung Clinics
Hospital-owned clinics that are miles away should be reimbursed at the same rates as an independent doctor, but not more, Medicare says. That new rule could save taxpayers $380 million in 2019.
