Nursefriendly.com: Healthcare Economics

Showing posts with label Healthcare Economics. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

In Defense Of Overhaul, Administration Says Preexisting Conditions Are Common : Shots - Health News Blog : NPR

Look at your friends and family. Look at yourself in the mirror.

Chances are good that quite a few people in your social circle have health trouble that would make it a lot more expensive or impossible to get health insurance, according to an analysis the Department of Health and Human Services released Tuesday morning.

Enlarge AP
Starting in 2014, insurers can no longer carve out needed benefits, charge higher premiums, set lifetime limits on benefits, or deny coverage due to a person’s preexisting condition.

AP
Starting in 2014, insurers can no longer carve out needed benefits, charge higher premiums, set lifetime limits on benefits, or deny coverage due to a person’s preexisting condition.

The report, timed to come out just as the Republican-controlled House moves ahead with a bill to repeal the federal health overhaul, estimates that as many as 129 million Americans younger than 65 have some sort of preexisting condition.

All told, 19 to 50 percent of those people have a health issue that would complicate the purchase of private health insurance. Asthma and high blood pressure could drive the costs up. More serious health problems could scotch private insurance altogether.

via npr.org

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The Politics of Health Care : National Health Service Corps Gets $290 Million Boost from Affordable Care Act

Program helps primary care clinicians repay student loans in exchange for two years of service in underserved areas.
The Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) announced on Nov. 22 the launch of a new application cycle for the National Health Service Corps (NHSC) Loan Repayment Program. The NHSC offers primary care medical, nursing, dental and mental health clinicians up to $60,000 to repay student loans in exchange for two years of service at health care facilities in medically underserved areas.

According to HHS, this year's investment in the program, which includes $290 million from the Affordable Care Act, seeks to address shortages in the primary health care workforce and translates into greater access to health care for those who might otherwise go without.

The Affordable Care Act also provides more flexibility in how NHSC administers the loan repayment program. In addition to monetary awards that are higher than previous years, NHSC will give members the option of working half-time to fulfill their service obligation and provide credit for some teaching hours.

via community.advanceweb.com

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Monday, January 10, 2011

HealthCare.gov (Healthcare Reform, Affordable Care Act)

Your Rights and Protections Under the Affordable Care Ac...

By Richard Sorian, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs

Under the new health care law, you will see an end to some of the worst abuses of the insurance industry. New rules will put you – not your insurance company – in control of your health care.…Continue Reading →

Myths vs. Facts: Repeal Would Be Bad for Americans’ Heal...

By Richard Sorian, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs

You may have read in today’s New York Times that the health care law enacted nine months ago is in jeopardy. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Let’s take these issues one at a time and talk about facts.

Making Living Independently A Reality for People with Di...

By Henry Claypool, Director of the Office on Disability

Many Americans with disabilities face challenges in accessing the fundamental right to determine where and how they want to live their lives. Thanks to a new inter-agency partnership, more people living with disabilities will have that choice.

Keeping an Eye on Proposed Premium Hikes

By Jenny Backus, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs

via healthcare.gov

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Friday, January 7, 2011

Health Care Spending Declines to 50-Year Low - Nursing Link

U.S. health care spending in 2009 grew at the slowest rate in 50 years, as the recession and high unemployment caused outlays for nearly all medical goods and services to slow or decline, according to a new government report released Wednesday.

Unlike previous recessions, when spending for health services began to slow some two years after an economic downturn, the effect of the Great Recession was swift and profound on insurers, health care providers and patients in both 2008 and 2009.

Total public and private spending for health services grew by 4 percent to $2.5 trillion, or $8,086 per person in 2009.

That’s up from $7,845 per person in 2008 when annual health outlays increased only 4.7 percent, which was the second-slowest growth rate in the last half a century, the Department of Health and Human Services reported.

Fueling the spending slowdown in 2009 was a 3.2 percent decline in private health insurance enrollment as 6.3 million people lost job-based health coverage that year. That loss of private coverage also curbed growth in out-of-pocket spending by patients, many of whom delayed medical care because of a lack of cash.

via nursinglink.monster.com

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Thursday, January 6, 2011

What Repealing the Affordable Care Act Will Cost Families, Seniors, Small Businesses, States… | The White House

This week, Republicans in the House of Representatives unveiled a bill that will repeal the Affordable Care Act and take us back to the days when insurance companies controlled the health care people could receive. This doesn’t come as a surprise, as Republican leaders have been threatening repeal since President Obama signed the reforms into law on March 23, 2010. But what is surprising is how carelessly they are disregarding the consequences of taking away the new freedoms, control over health care decisions, and the cost savings the law provides the American people, including

Unprecedented accountability and transparency in the insurance market;

Reduced prescription drug costs for seniors; tax credits for small businesses to defray the costs of employee coverage;

Protection against double-digit premium increases; preventive care without cost sharing; support for working class families by providing them tax credits to help pay for coverage;

Improved quality health insurance coverage for all Americans by creating competitive new state based health insurance marketplaces called Exchanges; and

Affordable, quality health coverage for all Americans regardless of their age and gender, or if they have a pre-existing condition.

via whitehouse.gov

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Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Hospital care easier, faster with standing orders - CNN.com

My patient one day, a spry 80-year-old, started to cough and feel short of breath during a blood transfusion: classic signs of a transfusion reaction. I stopped her IV, but she needed a steroid to bring her breathing back to normal.

Unable to reach her primary physician, we called in a rapid-response team. An ICU doctor, respiratory therapist, two ICU nurses, a nurse anesthetist, and MDs and RNs from the floor all rushed into the room . . . . to authorize giving my patient this one needed drug.

The patient did not need rescuing, just a dose of solumedrol, and I could have given her that dose, without wasting the time and energy of multiple nurses and doctors, if we had a protocol, or "standing order," in place in my hospital for treating transfusion reactions.

A standing order is a kind of treatment algorithm used in hospitals to expedite care. Protocols are designed by doctors and nurses, implemented by nurses, and are typically used either in specific emergencies or to deliver routine care. A protocol for treating low blood sugar is an example of treating an emergency; putting silver nitrate in a newborn's eyes counts as routine.

Protocols make a lot of sense, according to Nancy Foster, vice president for Quality and Safety Policy for the American Hospital Association. The AHA supports the use of standing orders because, Foster says, "Standardization is an effective way to make sure we do the right thing for the right patient at the right time."

via cnn.com

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I'll Never Ration. Not Me. Not I. - NYTimes.com

Opposition to health-care rationing is a little like opposition to growing up. It sounds great. It’s just not very practical.

A society’s resources are always limited. So we have to make choices about what we can afford and what we can’t. Not everyone can afford to own a vacation home — which means vacation homes are rationed. Not everyone can afford to live in towns with excellent public schools — which means that good public education is rationed.

Similarly, we can’t afford to try every feasible medical treatment on every patient. Instead, we make choices. The most obvious form of rationing is the millions of Americans who lack health insurance today. Most of them get less medical care than they need and, in the process, keep down the nation’s total medical bill.

But even those with health insurance experience rationing. How? In many ways.

This country has not spent the money to install computerized medical records, and we suffer more medical errors than many other countries. We underpay primary care doctors, relative to specialists, and we’re left stewing in waiting rooms while our primary-care doctors try to see as many patients as possible. Specialists are usually not paid for time they spend collaborating with doctors in other specialties, and many hard-to-diagnose conditions go untreated. Nurses are usually not paid to counsel people on how to improve their diets or remember to take their pills, and manageable cases of diabetes and heart disease become fatal.

via economix.blogs.nytimes.com

At some point we'll need to accept the fact that we cannot all have every test, every operation, every treatment, every new medicine or see every specialist.

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Tuesday, January 18, 2011

In Defense Of Overhaul, Administration Says Preexisting Conditions Are Common : Shots - Health News Blog : NPR

The Politics of Health Care : National Health Service Corps Gets $290 Million Boost from Affordable Care Act

Monday, January 10, 2011

HealthCare.gov (Healthcare Reform, Affordable Care Act)

Friday, January 7, 2011

Health Care Spending Declines to 50-Year Low - Nursing Link

Thursday, January 6, 2011

What Repealing the Affordable Care Act Will Cost Families, Seniors, Small Businesses, States… | The White House

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Hospital care easier, faster with standing orders - CNN.com

I'll Never Ration. Not Me. Not I. - NYTimes.com

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