February 11th 2025
Joshua Kaufman, MD, medical director of Behavioral Health and Medical Integration at Capital District Physicians' Health Plan, outlines the progression of treatment approaches for comorbid schizophrenia and substance use disorder.
February 11th 2025
Legislation Aims to Protect Chronically Ill
January 17th 2014Patients at high risk - including those with cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease - will be covered under the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan (PCIP) until March 31, thanks to a decision this week from the Department of Health and Human Services.
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Federal Judge Rejects Challenge to ACA Subsidies
January 16th 2014A federal judge in Washington, D.C., Wednesday strongly rejected a major challenge to the healthcare reform law, ruling that the law allows the federal government to offer premium subsidies to people who buy insurance coverage through the federal insurance exchange and not just through state-run exchanges.
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Insurance Execs Say They're Not Panicking About Exchange Enrollment
January 16th 2014Health insurers are expressing measured optimism for enrollment in the coverage they're selling on the health insurance exchanges after quietly grumbling for weeks that the fumbled rollout was undermining their business plans.
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Young and Healthy Still Needed in Exchanges
January 15th 2014Who's purchasing health plans through the insurance exchanges? According to the federal government, more than 2.1 million people have enrolled into private insurance coverage through December, and an additional 1.6 million became eligible for financial assistance under Medicaid.
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Affording the Affordable Care Act
January 14th 2014The promise of the Affordable Care Act is right there in its title: Affordable. Yet, anti-poverty agencies across the country fear that even with the federal financial assistance available under the law, health insurance will remain unaffordable for significant numbers of low-income Americans.
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Emergency Rooms Are Front Line For Enrolling New Obamacare Customers
January 14th 2014Most patients remain thoroughly befuddled about the law. Half of uninsured adults who could get policies now through the health insurance marketplaces have never tried to buy insurance on their own, and, in California, nearly one out of two poor adults don't know they would qualify for Medicaid.
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Most Small Health Plans Struggle To Thrive In California Insurance Marketplace
January 13th 2014About 96 percent of Covered California customers are picking among the "big four" plans, according to a "Road to Reform" analysis of October and November enrollment figures. (Based on off-the-record interviews with several health plan officials, a similar trend continued through December).
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Peter B. Bach, MD, MAPP, Analyzes the Risks of the ACO and PCMH in the Oncology Practice
January 9th 2014Peter B. Bach, MD, MAPP, director, Center for Health Policy and Outcomes, and attending physician, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, says there are a couple of challenges with the accountable care organization (ACO) and patient centered medical home (PCMH) care models.
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Will Health Costs Continue Slowing?
January 9th 2014Call it the $2.8 trillion enigma. That's the amount Americans spent on health care in 2012. The good news is that health spending slowed unexpectedly for the fourth consecutive year. The enigma is that no one really knows why. Despite many theories, there's no expert consensus.
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Hospital Officials, Advocates Lament Proposed Limits on Obamacare 'Navigators'
January 8th 2014Hospital officials, Democratic lawmakers and advocates for the poor complained Monday that the state's proposed rule on health insurance navigators could cripple efforts to educate Texans about their coverage options.
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Medicare Beneficiaries Unikely to Relocate for Better Coverage
January 8th 2014Across the country, Medicaid expansion varies among states. Some experts worried about whether that variation would drive Americans to relocate to other states so that they could obtain better medical coverage. However, those concerns are likely to prove unfounded, according to a recent study from Harvard.
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Percentage of Those Gaining Coverage Under ACA Will Vary Widely by State
January 7th 2014The share of individuals who will gain insurance coverage under the federal healthcare reform law will vary sharply from state to state, according to a report released Monday by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
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Healthcare Spending Growth Slows
January 7th 2014An annual report from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services finds that health spending totaled $2.8 trillion in 2012, which accounted for 17.2% of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP) and was down slightly from the 17.3 % of GDP in 2011.
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Idaho GOP trims expectation of Medicaid expansion
January 6th 2014Republican leaders in Idaho on Friday dampened expectations about broadening Medicaid healthcare eligibility this year for poor residents in the state, on the same grounds they balked in 2013: Before taking extra federal money, the existing system should be overhauled to encourage beneficiaries to take personal responsibility for their health.
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Millions Of Lower-Income People Expected To Shift Between Exchanges And Medicaid
January 6th 2014While government officials have spent months scrambling to fix the federal health law's botched rollout, another issue is looming that could create new headaches for states, health plans and patients.
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ED Visits Top Executive 'Watch List'
January 6th 2014The Affordable Care Act has been touted as a means to control costs and improve quality of care. One initiative in that effort is to steer patients away from visiting the emergency department (ED). That undertaking may prove to be challenging.
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Medicare Pricing Drives Costs of US Healthcare
January 3rd 2014January 2014 has arrived, and with that Affordable Care Act coverage begins. Over the next 12 months, the administration will thoroughly consider the ways in which it can control the rising costs of healthcare in the United States. This is especially true for the nation's Medicare program.
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Newly Insured Found to Use Pricier ERs in Test for Obamacare
January 3rd 2014Emergency rooms may be a preferred choice for care among 3.9 million people newly enrolled in the U.S. Medicaid program for the poor, according to a study that suggests Obamacare's costs may be higher than expected.
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Over 2 Million Have Signed Up on Obamacare, State Websites: US Official
December 31st 2013Over two million people have enrolled in health insurance plans through the federally run HealthCare.gov and state healthcare enrollment websites, a US administration official said on Tuesday. HealthCare.gov covers 36 states, and another 14 states have their own websites.
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What Endocrinologists Can Expect From Obamacare
December 30th 2013Healthcare reform is already presenting new challenges and opportunities for endocrinology, a specialty that is under significant stress in the United States. A critical workforce shortage has drained the pool of practicing endocrinologists, just as the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is expected to send millions of newly insured people into the system.
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CMS Looking for Accountable Care Organization Comments and New Pioneer ACO Participants
December 23rd 2013The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Friday that it is seeking a second round of applicants to the Pioneer ACO Model. It is also soliciting suggestions for new accountable care organization models that encourage greater provider integration and financial accountability.
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ObamaCare, Doctor Shortage To Spur $2 Billion Telehealth Market
December 23rd 2013The business of treating patients via telehealth in the U.S. will dramatically increase to nearly $2 billion in revenue within five years due to a confluence of events in the health care industry from doctor shortages to provider payment changes under the Affordable Care Act.
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