Health Care Delivery

The upcoming election is going to play a large role in the future of Obamacare, which Patricia Salber, MD, MBA, of The Doctor Weighs In, believes will show an increased number of states expanding Medicaid. She added that the ticket will be important in determining the types of legislatures at the state level in the coming years, which in the end determines whether Medicaid will expand in the holdout states.

CMS will face the question of whether to approve Governor Matt Bevin's requests, which include work requirements, or see if he follows through on a threat to cancel Medicaid expansion for 450,000.

Healthcare providers sometimes fail to consider the other aspects of a patient's life that could be affecting physical health and wellness, said Karin VanZant, executive director of Life Services at CareSource.

The update of the Urban Institute’s 2015 analysis suggests that the nation continues to be on track to spend much less on healthcare over the next several years than was projected by CMS in late 2010.

An initiative that provided Pennsylvania Medicaid patients with a primary care “medical home” reduced the costs of their care by up to $4100 per year and decreased the number of their physician visits and hospitalizations.

Sustainability in the Affordable Care Act marketplaces will occur when the health plans and the providers come together to establish both cost and quality goals and work together to achieve them, explained Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of EmblemHealth.