Most patients showed willingness to use apps and online scheduling systems, but they were a lower priority than quality interactions.
Category: Health Insurance
Healthcare spending rises to $3.6 trillion in the U.S., driven partly by health insurance tax
After a slower growth rate in 2017, 2018 saw growth rates about equal to those of 2016, driven in part by the reinstatement of a fee on insurers.
Laws ensuring commercial insurance coverage for telehealth increasing among states
Still, a new state-by-state survey from Foley & Lardner suggests there is still plenty of ground to cover in terms of telehealth payment parity, as well as the language used in the laws themselves.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: We Spend HOW MUCH On Health Care?
The annual accounting of national health spending is out. And the 2018 health bill for the U.S. was $3.6 trillion, consuming nearly a fifth of the nation’s economy. Meanwhile, Congress is nearing the end of the year without having finished either its annual spending bills or several other high-priority health items. Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, Rovner interviews KHN’s Markian Hawryluk about the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month.”
Suicide attempts and hospitals admissions linked to non-opioid drugs on the rise
All states have seen increases in gabapentin exposures over a five-year period, coinciding with a decline in opioid prescriptions.
Employer-based health coverage remains strong, though concerns about affordability remain
Mental health benefits have also become important for employers, recognizing that it has an effect on absenteeism and productivity.
‘An Arm And A Leg’: How Much For Stitches In The ER? Hard To Gauge Upfront
Consumers are admonished to be “smart shoppers,” but that’s difficult if health care prices are clear as mud. When Sarah Macsalka’s son needed stitches, she did her best to avoid the ER and still ended up with a $3,000 bill.
California Surprise-Billing Law Protects Patients But Aggravates Many Doctors
A California law, which took effect in July 2017, protects consumers who use an in-network hospital or other facility from surprise bills when cared for by an out-of-network doctor. But physicians say the law has allowed insurers to shrink networks, limiting access to those doctors who have contracted with the patients’ insurance plans.
How changing Affordable Care Act rules affected health insurance premium costs
It’s the unanticipated consequence of the 2017 cut of the ACA’s cost-sharing reduction payments to health insurers.
Shortage of specialists negatively impacting patients in rural areas
Medicare recipients with chronic conditions such as heart failure or diabetes who live in rural locations have higher death and hospitalization rates.
