Category: Cost and Quality

Women Shouldn’t Get A Bill For An IUD … But Sometimes They Do

The Affordable Care Act requires that insurers cover birth control with no out-of-pocket costs, but the enforcement mechanism is weak and a pending court case could add further complications.

Women Shouldn’t Get A Bill For An IUD … But Sometimes They Do

The Affordable Care Act requires that insurers cover birth control with no out-of-pocket costs, but the enforcement mechanism is weak and a pending court case could add further complications.

Patients Stuck With Bills After Insurers Don’t Pay As Promised

Insurance companies often require patients to have medical procedures, devices, tests and even some medicines preapproved to ensure the insurers are willing to cover the costs. But that doesn’t guarantee they’ll end up paying. Some patients are getting stuck with unexpected bills after the medical service has been provided.

Patients Stuck With Bills After Insurers Don’t Pay As Promised

Insurance companies often require patients to have medical procedures, devices, tests and even some medicines preapproved to ensure the insurers are willing to cover the costs. But that doesn’t guarantee they’ll end up paying. Some patients are getting stuck with unexpected bills after the medical service has been provided.

Patients Caught In Crossfire Between Giant Hospital Chain, Large Insurer

Insurance giant Cigna and San Francisco-based Dignity Health have failed to ink a 2020 contract, leaving nearly 17,000 patients in California and Nevada scrambling to find new health care providers. Meanwhile, Dignity faces financial and legal challenges while it strives to implement its merger with Catholic Health Initiatives, which created one of the nation’s largest Catholic hospital systems.

On Drug Pricing, The President’s Numbers Are Still Off

We checked again. The data has not changed.

What To Do If Your Home Health Care Agency Ditches You

If you’re told Medicare’s home health benefits have changed, don’t believe it: Coverage rules haven’t been altered and people are still entitled to the same types of services. All that has changed is how Medicare pays agencies.

Beyond Burnout: Docs Decry ‘Moral Injury’ From Financial Pressures Of Health Care

Doctors and other clinicians say they’re enduring moral injury because the business of health care interferes with patient care.

Why Home Health Care Is Suddenly Harder To Come By For Medicare Patients

Medicare has changed how it pays for services. In response, agencies across the country are firing therapists, limiting physical, occupational and speech therapy, and terminating services for some longtime, severely ill patients.

Preeminent Hospitals Penalized Over Rates Of Patients’ Injuries

Medicare cut payments for 786 hospitals because of high infection and complication rates. They included a third of the hospitals proclaimed as the nation’s best in one prominent ranking.