Leaders of the IU Health hospital system have discussed recently, according to multiple sources, whether a closer partnership with Eskenazi Hospital might be just what the doctor ordered.
An estimated 40,000 Hoosiers who already bought health insurance on the Obamacare exchanges now must end those plans and enroll in the expanded Healthy Indiana Plan. Otherwise, they’ll be on the hook to pay back thousands of dollars in Obamacare tax credits.
When the U.S. Supreme Court hands down its ruling on Obamacare’s tax credits, it could zap nearly $1 billion from Hoosiers’ finances. In fact, Hoosiers buyers on Obamacare’s exchanges have more to lose, as a percentage of their incomes, than the residents of all states other than Alaska and Mississippi.
Nearly half of all Hoosier workers covered by employer health plans are now enrolled in high-deductible, consumer-directed health plans, according to a new survey. That means the state is about to pass the point of no return on transforming health care into a real marketplace.
Since Obamcare was expected to boost insurance coverage nationally by 32 million people, drugmakers like Eli Lilly and Co. stood to benefit. But it’s not working out that way. At least not for Lilly.
Recognizing that more and more Hoosier patients are trying to shop for health care, the Indiana Hospital Association has created a web tool with price and quality information for all hospitals around the state. But bigger changes to the health care system will be needed before consumers have the kind of information they expect in other industries.
The state Medicaid program will pay $24 million more due to the nursing home building boom that occurred in 2014, according to an analysis by accounting firm Myers & Stauffer. The nursing home industry will use that figure to once again argue for halt to new construction.
Five Indianapolis-area hospitals stand to lose more than $7 million in Medicare payments as a penalty for having rates of infections and patient injuries that run higher than most hospitals nationwide.
In health care, 5 percent of patients account for 50 percent of costs. Trouble is, those patients aren’t the same from year to year. Not even close.
In spite of the divergent trend, Indiana still employs more workers in hospitals and doctors’ offices than the nation as a whole.
This spring, Keith Pitzele ended his company’s health plan and sent his workers to the Obamacare exchange. It was a bumpy experience he’s glad he won’t have to repeat next year. Does that mean most employers won’t follow suit?
No Hoosier employers want to pay Obamacare’s 40 percent excise tax on health benefits, which hits in 2018. So they are embracing high-deductible plans and putting more responsibility for health care spending on workers.
Deloitte consultants say hospitals are about to go the way of department stores, airlines and banks by clustering into fewer and fewer competitors. There’s plenty of evidence from Indiana to support that theory.
Even without Medicaid expansion, Obamacare appears to have substantially reduced the more than 900,000 Hoosiers that go without health insurance during a year.
There are more choices and better deals in the 2015 Obamacare exchange, but if you want the same coverage as last year, it’s going to cost you more.
On Obamacare, the new Republican-controlled Congress should “leave the façade of the building and then demolish the inside of it,” according to one GOP leader. If Republicans take that approach, here are four things that could change in the next two years.
Retail clinics and urgent care centers are proliferating. That could expand the market for health care. But if consumers decide instead to make strip malls the front door to their health care—rather than traditional physician offices—the hospital systems could see their market shares waning.
WellPoint’s stock has benefited the most among major insurers since the 2013 launch of the Obamacare exchanges, along with tax subsidies to buy insurance.
Obamacare's community rating rules would give 25-percent-off coupons to boomers while sticking millennials with a 75-percent surcharge, according to recent data from employer health plans.
The federal government has spent $27 billion—and hospital systems have spent even more—to roll out electronic medical records across the industry. But even advocates say the results have been “disappointing.”
