Health Care Delivery

Officials in at least a half dozen states are pushing back against health plans in the new insurance markets that limit choice of doctors and hospitals in a bid to control medical costs.

Almost 80 million people with employer health plans could find their coverage canceled because they are not compliant with ObamaCare, several experts predicted.

Dr. Farzad Mostashari, former National Coordinator of Health IT, serves as guest editor of a special issue of AJMC, which covers the breadth of issues concerning how technology is affecting healthcare delivery, quality of care, and payment reform.

The aftershocks of states choosing not to expand their Medicaid programs are being felt nationwide.

The spending slowdown is about more than the recession (which ended in 2009) -- it's also structural, a significant part of the slowdown can be tied to the impact of the Affordable Care Act.

Another day brings another delay for the federal health law known as the Affordable Care Act.

The Obama administration plans to push back by a month the second-year start of enrollment in its health program to give insurers more time to adjust to growing pains in the U.S. law, a move that may stave off higher premiums before the 2014 congressional elections.

While the Affordable Care Act (ACA) aims to reform healthcare nationally, the way in which the law is implemented will vary on a state-by-state basis.

Electronic health records are changing the way your family doctor does business, with most now able to view lab results or send a prescription online, a change that advocates say will improve efficiency and lead to fewer medical errors.

As Americans have begun shopping for health plans on the insurance exchanges, they are discovering that insurers are restricting their choice of doctors and hospitals in order to keep costs low, and that many of the plans exclude top-rated hospitals.

Oregon, a state that fully embraced the Affordable Care Act, is enduring one of the rockiest rollouts of President Barack Obama's signature health care law, with an inoperative online exchange that has yet to enroll a single subscriber, requiring thousands to apply on paper instead.

Pharmacy Times, The American Journal of Managed Care, and the Convenient Care Association presented a panel discussion on how the Affordable Care Act is affecting the health care landscape and opportunities it is offering to retail clinics.

The administration was warned last spring that its website didn't meet key requirements for a successful rollout, including relying too heavily on outside contractors, according to a copy of a Red Team report.

Seeking to defuse a growing political furor as millions of Americans receive cancellation notices from health insurers, the Obama administration will not require insurance companies to upgrade existing individual plans to meet the requirements of the federal healthcare law for 2014.

California has mistakenly sent letters to 246,000 low-income residents, warning they may need to find new doctors next year under the state's newly expanded Medicaid program.

Supporters and opponents of the federal health law still can't decide whether to call it the woodwork or welcome mat effect - the millions of people currently eligible for Medicaid who are not enrolled and who are expected to sign up as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

With millions of consumers getting cancellation notices for their current health plans, President Obama announced Thursday that he will encourage insurance companies to continue offering their customers the same health plans next year.

The initial state healthcare exchange enrollment numbers are in, and that amount is short of expected estimates.

About 8,000 Washington residents will soon receive letters informing them that the price they are expecting to pay for health insurance purchased on the new online exchange marketplace is incorrect.

Enrollment in health plans sold in the new health insurance marketplaces under the healthcare reform law appears to be lagging far behind targets.

In states refusing to expand Medicaid programs, many low-income individuals are likely to face even more difficulties in receiving care as a subsidy that assisted safety net hospitals is reduced under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

With increasing numbers of Americans gaining insurance under the Affordable Care Act, many experts are worried about the looming physician shortage.

For all the current focus on Obamacare lurching into its infancy, 50-year-old Medicare is also undergoing profound and disruptive change as Congress struggles with soaring medical bills and a growing senior population.

A government subsidy, little known outside health policy circles but critical to the hospitals' survival, is being sharply reduced under the new health law.

The agency tasked with implementing the president's healthcare law said Thursday it had uncovered new stresses further downstream in the system that revealed the need for a fresh look at the back-end capacity needs of the online healthcare portal.