Rather than raising prices on private health insurers to make up for inadequate payments from the government, hospitals across the country have been raising prices just because they can, according to a new study.
Indiana’s county-owned hospitals have rushed to acquire nursing homes in the past two years, opening a revenue stream for both the hospitals and the long-term-care facilities. But the additional federal revenue that has driven these purchases could come under threat.
Indiana, Michigan and South Carolina saw the steepest declines in employer-backed coverage from 2000 to 2011, according to a study released Thursday.
Even though Obamacare likely will expand health insurance coverage to an extra 500,000 Hoosiers over the next few years, IU Health expects per-patient reimbursements to fall as the federal government, employers and patients all push back on sky-high health care costs.
The recent flurry of big announcements portends well.
The biggest changes from President Obama’s 2010 health reform law take effect nine months from now, so many Hoosier employers have started crunching detailed numbers to cost out their options.
A fellow conservative provided some support for Gov. Mike Pence’s claim that an expansion of Medicaid will become a “baby elephant” that eats up larger and larger shares of state resources.
One explanation for Indiana University Health’s decision to delay its Methodist Hospital expansion is that new “value-based” payment models appear to be pushing down hospitalization rates, according to a study released Friday.
While rural hospitals face sharp reductions in their operating incomes, most of the four major hospital systems based in Indianapolis will see only a marginal impact on their finances.
The Indiana Senate voted unanimously last week to require the Indiana Medicaid program to pay home health agencies, rural health clinics and federally qualified health centers for doing medical consultations, diagnoses and monitoring using videoconferencing, telephones or computers.
The five-year trend of physician practices marrying up with hospitals has made it harder and harder for independent physician practices to spend time in more than one hospital system.
The actuarial firm hired by the state estimates savings of about $156 million per year if Indiana uses its Healthy Indiana Plan to expand Medicaid coverage.
The cost of health care for an additional 400,000 low income residents is something nobody in the Indiana Statehouse seems to be able to agree upon this year, even as the crucial decision about whether to expand Medicaid bears down on lawmakers midway through their annual session.
Decisions by other Republican governors to support Medicaid expansion is increasing pressure on Indiana’s governor to do the same.
Community Health Network’s new partnership with Wishard Health Services will create a primary-care behemoth that the systems argue will put them in the best position possible to handle the changes coming from federal health reform.
The partnership will create a new board to oversee and coordinate the operations of both systems, according to internal messages sent to Community stakeholders. Community Health CEO Bryan Mills will be the CEO of the new joint-operating entity.
The Indianapolis-based health insurer saw its stock tumble as much as 4.8 percent Wednesday morning after it unexpectedly named career hospital executive Joe Swedish to be its next CEO.
Don Kelso is executive director of the Indiana Rural Health Association. The trade group is trying to help its members navigate the changes coming from health care reform and the financial pressures being created by federal budget cuts. The association recently launched a service for its members called SuiteStats, which is data-management software to help hospital executives identify areas ripe for cost-cutting.
Up until now, Gov. Mike Pence and his fellow Republicans in the Legislature have been playing a game of poker with the Obama administration over a potential expansion of Indiana’s Medicaid program. But all of a sudden, Indiana’s hand just got quite a bit weaker.
In the era of health care reform, hospitals will face two new challenges: They will need to run higher-volume, lower-margin businesses, and they’ll be on the hook financially for what patients do even when they’re not receiving health care. Community Health Network’s new partnership with Walgreens’ Take Care Clinics is designed to help address both issues.
