New estimate drops health plan’s cost to Indiana
A new estimate has lowered the expected cost of the federal health care overhaul to Indiana’s state government to perhaps $2.6 billion over the next decade.
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‘Payer mix’ playing role in hospital merger
Morgan Hospital & Medical Center is on the brink of merging with Clarian Health for a variety of reasons, but one of the biggest is one that all hospitals are facing in one way or another: a declining payer mix.
Drugmakers’ ‘doughnut hole’ deal to shave sales
Drugmakers including Pfizer Inc., AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Eli Lilly and Co. may provide more than $2 billion in drug discounts to senior citizens next year under a deal pharmaceutical companies made with the White House.
Reform will boost health care costs, Indianapolis panel predicts
Rising costs aren't the only impact of reform, say panelists taking part in a Power Breakfast sponsored by Indianapolis Business Journal.
Health reform forces providers, insurers to lay aside rivalries
In this new age of health care, ushered in by President Obama’s signing in March of a sweeping health care reform law, health care players are encouraged to remove the gloves if they want to reap the benefits of reform.
Health overhaul’s $264M question weighs down WellPoint
The failure by state regulators to decide how much insurers must spend on patient care is scaring investors from health-plan stocks and complicating insurance company decisions.
Community moves to integrate doctors
Community Health now has about 550 physicians, either on its payroll or committed through integration contracts, who have some of their pay hinge on measures of quality and communication. CEO Bryan Mills says the hospital system is looking to add even more.
Some states suing feds also claim health subsidies
An administration official said Tuesday that seven states, including Indiana, suing the federal government are among 16 already
approved for subsidies to help with the health care costs of early retirees.
iSalus sees business boom as docs chase stimulus cash
The company is seeing a rush of new sales for its Web-based electronic medical record system from doctors, who all stand to
receive bonus payments from the federal stimulus act for computerizing their patient records.
Estimate puts Indiana health overhaul costs at $3.1B
Family and Social Services Administration Secretary Anne Murphy and acting Insurance Commissioner Stephen Robertson have sent
Gov. Mitch Daniels a letter that now estimates the overhaul will cost Indiana $235 million more than the previous estimate
in May.
VA hospital, health-info exchange enter pilot project
The Roudebush Veterans Affairs Medical Center and the Indiana Health Information Exchange are going to work to make
their medical record systems talk to each other in a pilot project spearheaded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Indiana gets $2.3M for electronic health records
Medicaid Director Pat Casanova says the money will be used for necessary state steps to create an incentive program for medical
providers and hospitals to move from paper records to electronic ones.
Indiana Medicaid chief: Feds leave states in dark
Indiana and other states face a struggle as they grapple with putting the health care changes into place in a relatively short
span of time while they also contend with the economic downtown and strained state budgets.
Doctors breathe a sigh of relief
As doctors threaten to drop Medicare patients, Congress delays cuts for another six months.
WellPoint exec sees health insurer ‘oligopoly’ coming
U.S. health insurers are “moving towards an oligopoly,” a process that this year’s health-care overhaul
will accelerate, the investor-relations chief at WellPoint Inc. said Thursday.
Hospital jobs keep growing in recession
Hospitals continued to be a stable and slightly growing source of jobs and wages in Indiana—for better and for worse.
The sector paid $7.3 billion to 127,000 Hoosiers in 2008, according to the latest data from the American Hospital Association.
Medicare cuts hit doctors as Congress feuds
Physician offices will begin receiving payments from the Medicare that are 21.3-percent below
what they’ve been getting so far this year. Doctors still expect Congress to reverse the payment cuts, but physicians
and the Medicare program will have to reprocess claims, costing both extra money.
Obama gives states $250 million to review insurance premiums
WellPoint may face the most threat from more aggressive reviews. The Indianapolis insurer is the leader in small-business
and individual policies, areas that have seen the biggest increases in recent years.
Q&A: Don Stumpp
Don Stumpp, manager of payer contracting at Indianapolis-based physician group American Health Network and president of the Indiana Medical Group Management Association, discussed the impact of the health care reform law on primary care physicians as well as the near-constant threat of a sharp cut in Medicare reimbursement.
New estimate says health plan to cost Indiana $2.9B
The estimate released Friday from an outside actuary hired by the state is lower than the actuary’s “worst case scenario”
given two weeks ago.