Cartoon – Whose getting deep into my pockets?
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California Moves to Allow Undocumented Immigrants to Buy Insurance
In a move that is sure to draw the ire of Republicans, California officials are asking the Obama administration this week to approve a plan that would allow undocumented immigrants to buy health insurance on the state’s public exchange.
Officials say that up to 30 percent of the state’s two million undocumented adults could be eligible for the program, and that roughly 17,000 people are expected to participate in the first year, if the plan is approved. But the proposal faces serious hurdles in Washington, where it must be approved by both the Treasury and the Health and Human Services Departments.
During debates over health care in his first term, and again when Congress considered an immigration overhaul in 2013, President Obama made it clear that health insurance subsidies under the Affordable Care Act would not go to immigrants who are living in the United States illegally. And two provisions of the health care law limit coverage to residents who are here legally. But advocates of California’s initiative argue that the plan should be approved under what is known as an “innovation waiver,” which allows states to have provisions of the federal law modified, because no federal dollars will be used to fund the program.
Studies: Employer Costs Slow As Consumers Use Less Care, Deductibles Soar
Employer health insurance expenses continued to rise by relatively low amounts this year, aided by moderate increases in total medical spending but also by workers taking a greater share of the costs, new research shows.
Average premiums for employer-sponsored family coverage rose 3.4 percent for 2016, down from annual increases of nearly twice that much before 2011 and double digits in the early 2000s, according to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Kaiser Health News is an editorially independent program of the foundation.)
But 3.4 percent is still faster than recent economic growth, which determines the country’s long-run ability to afford health care.
And the tame premium increases obscure out-of-pocket costs that are being loaded on employees in the form of higher deductibles and copayments. Another new study suggests those shifts have prompted workers and their families to use substantially fewer medical services.
For the first time in Kaiser’s annual survey, more than half the workers in plans covering a single person face a deductible of at least $1,000. Deductibles for family plans are typically even higher.
How companies are quietly changing your health plan to make you pay more
Rich hospital, poor hospital divided by politics and a river
When hospital executive Jeanette Wojtalewicz visits CHI Health’s Mercy Council Bluffs facility across the Missouri River in Iowa, she sees the new clinics and doctors’ offices partly paid for by the state’s decision to expand Medicaid to thousands of residents.
Back on her side of the river is CHI Health’s Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, a state that opposed making more low-income people eligible for the government health-insurance program. While Mercy thrives about seven miles away, Creighton is cutting 250 beds to raise efficiency amid slumping financial results.
“There’s not a big geographical difference, but because of the regulations, there are big differences in the numbers,” said Wojtalewicz, chief financial officer at CHI Health, a 15-facility, nonprofit hospital system.
President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is as divisive as ever six years after its passage, with Republicans including presidential candidate Donald Trump vowing to repeal it. Yet as critics focus on the legislation’s insurance mandates and penalties, the biggest impact has come from Medicaid expansion, a decision made at state level.
Thinking Creatively To Fill Gaps In The Health Care Work Force
Thinking Creatively To Fill Gaps In The Health Care Work Force
Like many states, Texas faces shortages of doctors and other health workers. A conference at the Texas Medical Center explored the research behind several possible solutions, such as “grand-aides” and dental therapists.
Geisinger to add 1,500 new jobs
Following a decade of unprecedented growth, Geisinger Health System has launched a nationwide recruitment effort to increase its workforce 5 percent, by hiring more than 1,500 physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses and support staff.
And that recruiting “will certainly continue to include many positions in the central Pennsylvania region, where Geisinger was founded and has its corporate headquarters,” according to an early evening statement released by Geisinger.
“Caring for more than 3 million patients every year takes a team,” said Julene Campion, vice president of talent management at Geisinger, in a prepared statement. “Every day, our 30,000 employees strive to improve that care. This responsibility has motivated Geisinger to push the boundaries of geography and healthcare innovation, grow its medical specialty and subspecialty offerings, and recruit the best and the brightest for more than 1,500 critical healthcare positions to better care for our patients in the communities we serve.”
Geisinger is seeking candidates for all levels of employment, including administration, clerical, environmental services, food services, laboratory services, information technology, marketing, occupational therapy, pharmacy and research.
In the past year, Geisinger President and CEO Dr. David Feinberg has also instituted a $10 minimum wage across the health system.
Failure to Improve Is Still Being Used, Wrongly, to Deny Medicare Coverage
For months, physical therapists worked with Mrs. Kirby, a retired civil servant who is now 75, trying to help her regain enough mobility to go home. Then her daughter received an email from one of the therapists saying, “Edwina has reached her highest practical level of independence.”
Translation: Mrs. Kirby wouldn’t receive Medicare coverage for further physical therapy or for the nursing home. If she wanted to stay and continue therapy, she’d have to pay the tab herself.
Medicare beneficiaries often hear such rationales for denying coverage of skilled nursing, home health care or outpatient therapy: They’re not improving. They’ve “reached a plateau.” They’re “stable and chronic,” or have achieved “maximum functional capacity.”
Deanna Kirby wasn’t buying it. “I knew they couldn’t refuse you, even if you’re not improving,” she said.
She’s right. A federal judge last month ordered the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to do a better job of informing health care providers and Medicare adjudicators that the so-called improvement standard was no longer in effect.
Cartoon – The School Nurse
Cartoon – Enough of My Problems
