Some hospitals throughout the country are barely managing to survive given that many avenues of their revenue have been shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most hospitals have cancelled elective procedures and routine care which represent over half of all hospital revenue in order to ensure that there are enough beds and critical care resources…
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First, there is no question that COVID-19 is a significant pandemic worthy of our collective international attention. There are currently almost 127,000 confirmed cases worldwide, most of which are concentrated in China, South Korea, Italy, and Iran. Second, there is no question that this is a virulent virus with a mortality rate of approximately 3.4%…
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It’s said that people love surprises, but when they come in the form of medical bills, American consumers beg to differ. More than half have gotten a surprise medical bill, according to the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago, and more than half of those surveyed blame the insurance carrier. While occurrences…
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HRAs, or health reimbursement arrangements, are defined as a type of account-based health plan that employers can use to reimburse employees for their medical care expenses. Employer-sponsored health plans cover more than 155 million employees in this country. Enthusiastic administration officials say the plan will give the private insurance market a shot in the arm,…
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Just when world health officials and those here in the United States thought they’d seen the last of measles, the disease is back with a vengeance. Domestic measles was eliminated with the dawn of the new millennium, but thanks to international travelers, the disease wasn’t “long gone.” Outbreaks occurred here in the early 2000s, in…
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It is extraordinarily rare when the U.S. Department of Justice makes an argument for undoing a law, particularly one that’s been on the books for less than a decade. But that is exactly what happened this month as part of a curious legal case that has the potential to unravel the Affordable Care Act. In…
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Health care financing experts expect Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Alex Azar to follow through to introduce a new mandatory bundled payment model for radiation oncology. The announcement was something of a surprise since the previous Trump administration HHS secretary, Tom Price, had cancelled three planned mandatory payment models for treating heart attacks, bypass surgery…
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With the midterms less than two weeks away a new poll published October 18th by the non-partisan Kaiser Family Foundation got a lot of attention. Over seventy percent of voters say health care is a very important issue in deciding who to vote for. But exactly what happens to key healthcare initiatives, especially the…
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It’s 2018 and health insurance remains a major conundrum for America’s leaders, one hot political potato. Our current health system is worth $3.2 trillion to our economy — the most “valuable” in the world — but nearly 44 million people are without health insurance and our life expectancy falls behind thirty-six other nations. The question…
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Drug pricing; It’s complicated The White House Rose Garden was in full bloom when President Trump took the podium to announce that his administration was “launching the most sweeping action in history to lower the price of prescription drugs for the American people.” He said: “It’s been a complicated process, but not too complicated.” Thing…
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