February 12, 2013
A new Congressional Budget Office (click here) report out last week has the healthcare world scratching its head over the possibility that Obamacare might—in part—be responsible for what is being described as a significant slowdown in the growth of healthcare costs in America.
According to the report, hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending for Medicare and Medicaid are being removed from government projections as federal healthcare spending is now expected to be full 15 percent less than what had been initially budgeted for 2012. The surprisingly low spending projections come as the growth in healthcare spending has hit a new low for the fourth consecutive year....
These requests are coming across the board for the states involved. But, no one request for double digit increases reflects a defined trend. The requests are all over the place. It looks as though the requests are company specific and not a defined concern within the health care industry that could be investigated for it's impact.
Is this a Supreme Court thing?
June 1, 2015
By Reed Abelson
A new Congressional Budget Office (click here) report out last week has the healthcare world scratching its head over the possibility that Obamacare might—in part—be responsible for what is being described as a significant slowdown in the growth of healthcare costs in America.
According to the report, hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending for Medicare and Medicaid are being removed from government projections as federal healthcare spending is now expected to be full 15 percent less than what had been initially budgeted for 2012. The surprisingly low spending projections come as the growth in healthcare spending has hit a new low for the fourth consecutive year....
These requests are coming across the board for the states involved. But, no one request for double digit increases reflects a defined trend. The requests are all over the place. It looks as though the requests are company specific and not a defined concern within the health care industry that could be investigated for it's impact.
Is this a Supreme Court thing?
June 1, 2015
By Reed Abelson
In a sign of the tumult (click here) in the health insurance
industry under the Affordable Care Act, companies are seeking wildly
differing rate increases in premiums for 2016, with some as high as 85
percent, according to information released on Monday by the federal
government for the 37 states using HealthCare.gov as their exchange.
The data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid
Services included only proposed rate increases of 10 percent or more,
and federal officials emphasized that it would be months before final
rates were set. Regulators in some states have the authority to overrule
rate increases they deem to be too high.
Experts cautioned against relying too heavily on the data as a predictor of prices for next year....
This is about Florida.
...Insurance companies (click here) have said their early enrollees were sicker than they had anticipated and were requiring more costly care.
United said that, in addition to more office visits and other consumer services, larger reimbursements to doctors and hospitals and more expensive medical technology contributed to its increase....
The federal government is going to have investigations to conduct as well. Recently, it has come to my attention some doctor's offices are charging their office fees twice for the NO COST annual check ups. There is proof of it. I need to forward it on to the state AG's office. I am sure the MD's office's billing companies (which are independent from the office staff) will state they simply made a mistake. That isn't really the case. The billing office openly stated those initial visits were billed twice. From what I understand it is about moving the deductibles along on new patients. I can't really diagnose the problem, the AG's office will have to discern the reasons. There is some fraud going on.
These double billings are changed when customers complain, but, that doesn't mean the insurance companies receive a notice about the removal of the extra charge.
Where there is no obvious indication of increases in health care costs, there may be creative charges by the physicians themselves.
But as I have stated before the first two years will result in more intense costs to bring persons to a better and stable health status because of the time without health care insurance. From what I am reading the increases are occurring on private policies. That doesn't mean it is okay.
This is about Florida.
...Insurance companies (click here) have said their early enrollees were sicker than they had anticipated and were requiring more costly care.
United said that, in addition to more office visits and other consumer services, larger reimbursements to doctors and hospitals and more expensive medical technology contributed to its increase....
The federal government is going to have investigations to conduct as well. Recently, it has come to my attention some doctor's offices are charging their office fees twice for the NO COST annual check ups. There is proof of it. I need to forward it on to the state AG's office. I am sure the MD's office's billing companies (which are independent from the office staff) will state they simply made a mistake. That isn't really the case. The billing office openly stated those initial visits were billed twice. From what I understand it is about moving the deductibles along on new patients. I can't really diagnose the problem, the AG's office will have to discern the reasons. There is some fraud going on.
These double billings are changed when customers complain, but, that doesn't mean the insurance companies receive a notice about the removal of the extra charge.
Where there is no obvious indication of increases in health care costs, there may be creative charges by the physicians themselves.
But as I have stated before the first two years will result in more intense costs to bring persons to a better and stable health status because of the time without health care insurance. From what I am reading the increases are occurring on private policies. That doesn't mean it is okay.
