Health Care Delivery

Supporters of the Affordable Care Act worry that the tax-filing season will generate new anger as uninsured consumers learn that they must pay tax penalties.

Although one of the central features of the Affordable Care Act was eliminating discrimination based on preexisting conditions, there is evidence insurers have found ways to dissuade high-cost patients from enrolling in their plans.

Lawmakers in Wyoming are working toward an agreement that would allow the state to accept hundreds of millions of federal dollars to expand the state's Medicaid program.

The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) protects most consumers from losing health coverage or their job if they pursue genetic testing. But authors of a new article in The New England Journal of Medicine explore the implications of testing for life, disability and long-term care insurance.

Of the 944,000 people who could renew their coverage for 2015 through Covered California, the state's health insurance exchange, 94% stayed in the same plan that they were in last year.

Meeting enrollment goals for the Affordable Care Act proved the easy part for the HHS in 2015. The hard part will come March 4, 2015, when the US Supreme Court will hear a case that could eliminate financial subsidies for millions who signed up, putting their health coverage at risk.

The White House said a Republican lawsuit challenging its implementation of the 2010 healthcare law misunderstands the constitutional separation of powers and should be thrown out.

A new report by the Congressional Budget Office finds that, if left untouched, the Affordable Care Act is poised to become even more so.

Hospital leaders express the same concerns heard in Florida, Alabama, and elsewhere since the midterms: refusing to expand Medicaid to the working poor leaves thousands without coverage, and they still come to emergency rooms for routine care. The problem is, the Affordable Care Act assumed that expansion would be universal, and funds to care for the uninsured have dried up.

The launch of HealthCare.gov will likely always be remember for the numerous glitches and flaws that bogged down enrollment and the question of who is really to blame for the poor rollout remains.

More than one-third of silver plans offered on the federal health insurance Marketplace may be listing inaccurate or incomplete prescription drug cost-sharing information.

The proposed federal guidelines are currently open for feedback are calling for greater transparency with informed consent and CER, which might stifle innovation, according to some advocacy groups.

The Affordable Care Act's mandate to increase Medicaid reimbursement to primary care providers has improved access to care for Medicaid enrollees, according to analysis of early evidence published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

With a Republican House and Senate and a Democrat governor, Arkansas had a difficult time passing Medicaid expansion legislation, explained Joe Thompson, MD, former state surgeon general.

Newly elected Arkansas Gov Asa Hutchinson said he wants to continue the state's Medicaid expansion compromise through December 31, 2016, but he is keeping his options open for a new plan in the future.

A little-known side to the government's health insurance website is prompting renewed concerns about privacy, just as the White House is calling for stronger cybersecurity protections for consumers.

The founding mission of AJMC was to bring the best available and most relevant evidence regarding efficient clinical and managerial practice to a broad spectrum of healthcare stakeholders-a mission that remains unchanged to this day.

US healthcare executives say that despite repeated calls from Republican lawmakers for repeal of President Obama's healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act is too entrenched to be removed.

Obama administration officials have warned that ambitious experiments run by the health law's $10 billion innovation lab wouldn't always be successful. Now there is evidence their caution was well placed.

Covered California's leader says its decision is only fair to those insurers who took on the risk of a brand new marketplace in 2014. But the state's insurance commissioner says limiting choices is unfair to consumers.

Marilyn B. Tavenner, the administrator of CMS, announced on Friday that she will be stepping down from her position at the federal agency.

Fears that Americans who signed up for Obamacare were more likely to be sicker than those with employer health programs may have been unfounded, according to data reviewed by Reuters.

The aging US population means that Medicare is taking care of more older, sicker people for longer periods of time. Population trends suggest this phenomenon will only increase, unless drastic management and healthcare delivery solutions are found.

The combination of 2 Medi-Cal primary care rate decreases could mean primary care providers who see a lot of Medi-Cal patients will have to scale back or stop seeing those beneficiaries.

Studies from RAND and the Urban Institute estimate that eliminating subsidies for the federally facilitated Marketplaces would increase premiums between 35% and 47% and cause at least 8.2 million people to drop coverage.

Cost cutting and new initiatives aimed at bringing in more patients will lead to another strong year in 2015 for for-profit hospitals. Meanwhile, their not-for-profit counterparts have been given negative outlooks by credit-rating agencies.

In command and ready for a fight, Republicans ignored a White House veto threat and advanced a bill in Congress that would curb President Barack Obama's healthcare overhaul by redefining full-time work as 40 hours a week.

If the Supreme Court invalidates Affordable Care Act subsidies for consumers on the federal exchange, states without their own Marketplaces will be unlikely to stave off "immediate destabilization" of their insurance market, according to experts.

North Carolina is the latest state to express interest in a possible waiver to expand Medicaid. But CMS and President Obama will have to rethink a position taken when Pennsylvania's request for a job training requirement was rejected last year.

The Affordable Care Act is on the move in Western states, with the governors of Utah, Wyoming, and Montana all working to hammer out deals with the Obama administration to expand Medicaid in ways tailored to each state.