High court ruling could leave 290K Hoosiers uncovered
A decision by Indiana to leave its Medicaid program unchanged could leave as many as 290,000 Hoosier adults, who would have been newly eligible for Medicaid coverage, with no good options.
Government Health Care
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U.S. health-care overhaul upheld by Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the core of President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, preserving most of a law that would expand insurance to millions of people and transform an industry that makes up 18 percent of the nation’s economy.
Analysis: How stocks will fare in ruling on health care law
The Supreme Court is expected to rule on the Affordable Care Act by the end of June. Here’s a roundup of how health care businesses would be affected under four different scenarios.
Employers slow to act on health reform
Even though employers expect the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down at least some of the 2010 health reform law later this month, few are actually doing any contingency planning.
Price hikes offset slower health care use
Newly available data from private health insurance plans show that price hikes by hospitals, doctors and drug companies have kept employer spending rising recently even as their employees and dependents have moderated their consumption of health care services.
Activists plan to protest WellPoint political giving at meeting
A mix of union groups, activist investors and single-payer advocates will call for increased disclosure from WellPoint, and some investment funds will vote against WellPoint board members who they say have failed to exercise proper oversight of WellPoint’s political spending.
Set pricing helps boost diagnostic network’s growth
When the same MRI at one facility costs $600 and at another costs $2,200, Dr. Robert Gregori would call that a business opportunity.
Lilly letting U.S. researchers test failed compounds for new uses
More than 20 compounds that Eli Lilly and Co., Pfizer Inc. and AstraZeneca Plc failed to turn into drugs will be tested by U.S.-sponsored scientists in a $20 million program to see if they’ll work against ailments they weren’t aimed at previously.
WellPoint sees $100 billion ‘duals’ market as care shifts
Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. sees a $100 billion market in the states it serves to provide managed care for poor, elderly patients in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Q&A
Sam Gibbs is president of eHealth Government Solutions, part of California-based eHealthInsurance Services Inc. The company, founded in 1997, pioneered the sale of health insurance over the Internet. Gibbs spoke about the options for public and private health insurance exchanges, including the state-based exchanges mandated by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Is health care bubble about to burst?
Citigroup economist writes that U.S. health care sector "reminds us somewhat ominously of the bubble in housing finance" because public spending is fueling private profits.
Supreme skepticism boosts WellPoint stock
Wall Street's favorable reaction came not only because harsh questioning by the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative justices put in doubt the health reform law’s mandate that all Americans buy health insurance, but also because the justices raised the possibility that they would strike down requirements that insurers accept all customers, regardless of health.
Supreme Court can’t stop ‘reform’
Leaping costs, aging populace and cash-strapped consumers will drive reform in health care industries even if court strikes down law.
Court: Indiana can’t deny welfare without reason
The Indiana Supreme Court said Thursday that the state Family and Social Services Administration can't deny Medicaid, food stamps or welfare to people without first doing a better job of telling them why.
Franciscan pulls back Greenwood plans
Franciscan St. Francis Health said its plans to build an emergency room and physician office building in Greenwood are on hold due to uncertainty over the effects of health care reform.
Rating doctors and other health care providers
A new onslaught of Medicare data might shine more light on providers, but tricky questions abound.
WellPoint, other insurers profit from health law they oppose
Insurance companies spent millions of dollars trying to defeat the U.S. health-care overhaul. But profit margins at the companies have widened to levels not seen since before the recession, a Bloomberg Government study shows.
Franciscan group picked for model accountable care program
The Indianapolis-based partnership is among 32 in the U.S. chosen for a model program designed to provide more coordinated care for people served by Medicare.
Hoosiers like parts of health reform law
As it is in the rest of the country, the 2010 health reform in Indiana continues to be unpopular, unlikely to be repealed and uncertain to put a dent in health spending, according to a poll of Hoosiers released last week by Ball State University.
Franciscan among Medicare’s first accountable care groups
Franciscan Alliance’s Indianapolis-area hospitals, along with more than 700 physicians, have been named one of the nation’s first 32 accountable care organizations.