Most individuals will pay less, not more, in Obamacare exchanges
Even with premiums doubling from 2012 to 2014, Obamacare’s subsidies will offset premium increases for most Hoosiers buying health insurance via the new federal exchanges.
Health Care Costs
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Get ready to see for-profit religious hospitals
Hospitals already operate like for-profit businesses, but now a financial pinch is making more hospitals join their ranks. Aggressive moves by St. Vincent’s parent organization are just the beginning.
State, Anthem ask techies to solve infant mortality
Dr. Bill VanNess, Indiana’s commissioner of health, asked IT developers to create a smartphone app that the state could offer to pregnant moms to educate them about infant health and help them easily schedule appointments with health care providers.
Would Medicaid expansion have saved hospital jobs?
As the Pence administration continues to negotiate with the feds, local hospitals say their recent cuts would not have been changed even if Indiana had expanded its Medicaid program.
WellPoint rolls out program with cost ceilings for procedures
Under so-called reference-based benefits, insured patients would have to pay the difference between procedure prices and maximums set by their employers. Several Indiana companies are considering using the tactic.
Want Cliffs Notes on health reform? Look at Wishard
Soon to change its name to Eskenazi Health, the county-owned hospital in Indianapolis is using a business model that tries to promote patients’ health, rather than merely treat their diseases.
Obama hands employers free play on health insurance
The Obama administration’s one-year delay on enforcement of penalties against employers that fail to offer affordable health insurance gives employers the chance to cancel their benefits for the year and pocket a boatload of cash.
Call the midwife: Doctors, hospitals, patients all guilty of driving up childbirth costs
I can see the business model of the physicians and hospitals at work as they recommend tests of questionable necessity. Yet when it’s my own wife and son, it’s easy to think of a terrible outcome to avert with just one more test.
St. Vincent gives big execs the ax; current job cuts just ‘first pass’
The job cuts at St. Vincent Health last month were so extensive that even two of the hospital system’s C-suite executives got the ax. And one local hospital accountant predicts these cuts are just the first pass that St. Vincent—and all of its hospital peers—will have to make.
Physician pay: What goes up must come down
Compensation in the most common physician specialties has been growing much faster than inflation for the past five years. Now, financially squeezed hospitals are set to reverse that trend.
St. Vincent Health eliminating about 865 jobs in Indiana
It was not clear how many workers were losing their jobs in the Indianapolis area. However, people familiar with the cuts said the reductions were heavy in the administrative ranks, and many of those jobs are on the city’s north side.
Obamacare rebates total $22.6M in Indiana
Indiana consumers are set to receive rebates that are 59 percent larger this year as Obamacare continues to force health insurers to refund premiums that exceed actual medical claims by more than 20 percent.
WellPoint’s respite from criticism will be short-lived
With recent attention focused on hospital prices, WellPoint and its peers have been enjoying a nice break from their long-running status as Public Enemy No. 1 in the nation’s health care debate. They shouldn’t expect it to last.
IT revolution coming to local health care
Local providers will increasingly look for help from IT firms like Indigo Biosystems Inc. and VoCare Inc. as part of a coming wave of health IT innovation that is likely to mirror the IT revolution that began 30 years ago.
Medicare report a fresh threat to local hospital finances
A new recommendation from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, if enacted, would likely end one of the ways Indianapolis-area hospitals have generated healthy revenue from their recent spree of physician acquisitions.
Hospitals, insurers should end hide-and-seek with prices
To get control of health care spending, prominent health policy wonks are calling for new rules requiring hospitals and insurers to raise the ‘veil of secrecy’ they have thrown over their prices for decades.
Hospitals proving themselves wrong about prices
Whenever a new report claims hospitals are charging too much, a stock set of defenses comes out. But hospitals are cutting prices and expenses as we speak, undermining those arguments.
Are employers ready to limit workers’ choice of doctor?
The real test of so-called narrow network health plans will come not with Obamacare's exchanges, but with employers, who control a far bigger slice of the health benefits pie and have been highly reluctant to limit their workers' choice of hospitals and doctors.
Are employers ready to limit workers’ choice of doctor?
The real test of so-called narrow network health plans will come not with Obamacare’s exchanges, which cater to individuals, but with employers, who control a far bigger slice of the health benefits pie and have highly reluctant to limit their workers' choice of hospitals and doctors.
Are hospitals on trajectory to pair up?
Indianapolis-area hospitals are undergoing such profound and permanent changes that some predict, eventually the four major hospital systems will merge and shrink down to two.