Paying for low value
A recent ranking of health care value in all 50 states puts Indiana in the basement. By my rough figures, working-age Hoosiers are paying a couple billions dollars extra for their health care.
Medicare
Articles
Finally, Congress OKs bill reshaping Medicare doctors’ fees
The Senate gave final congressional approval late Tuesday to the $214 billion bipartisan measure, which rewrites how Medicare pays doctors for treating over 50 million elderly people.
Hoosiers shopped around before picking Obamacare exchange coverage
One-third of Indiana’s buyers on Obamacare exchanges were new to their health plans this year—tying Indiana for sixth among the 37 states using the federal exchange.
Nursing homes in Indiana have more money than ever
Through partnerships with county-owned hospitals, Indiana’s nursing homes pulled in about $260 million last year in extra federal funds. That means participating nursing homes enjoyed a 10 percent bonus check.
Franciscan, poster child for Obamacare, sees 2014 profits surge fivefold
After cutting staff sharply in 2013, Franciscan enjoyed more revenue and big profits in 2014. The key question for its and other hospitals’ future is whether they can keep up these gains in productivity to handle looming payment cuts from Obamacare.
Roche sees more sales success with penny-pinching hospitals
The future of U.S. health care will be about precision and parsimony. And Roche Diagnostics Corp. think its new line of DNA-level testing machines are just what the doctor ordered.
Obamacare’s effects on Lilly: Modest pain, no gain
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.
Hoosier hospitals create new tool to help health care shoppers
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.
Study: Nursing home building boom is costing state millions
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.
Indy hospitals stung by Medicare penalties for patient injuries
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.
The moving target bedeviling attempts to cut health care costs
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.
The tragedy of electronic medical records
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.”
More hospitals hit with do-over penalties
Medicare will reduce payments to 68 Indiana hospitals—a 62-percent increase from last year—for having too many patients return within 30 days.
What if hospitals ‘upcharged’ you for being fat?
As local hospitals try to offer package deals with upfront prices on joint replacement surgeries, they're struggling with the reality that patients' other health conditions can significantly increase their cost of care.
Is this the future of rural health care: Walmart, walk-in clinics and an ambulance?
In two to three years, primary care clinics could be popping up in Walmart stores in rural Indiana while most rural Indiana hospitals will offer little to no inpatient services. That’s dramatically different from what we’re used to.
Should IU Health pursue a strategy of mediocrity?
Indiana University Health fell off U.S. News’ honor roll of the nation’s top 1 percent of hospitals. Because of Obamacare and other trends, perhaps IU Health should be happy about that.
Indy hospitals continue to see fewer patients. Why?
All of sudden, Hoosiers are buying less health care. Is that because we’ve kicked the habit, sobered up and found religion? Or is it the Great Recession hangover that will pass, eventually, so we can all get back to the party?
There will be blood
A new study found that common blood tests performed by hospital-owned facilities in the Indianapolis area were six to nine times more expensive than the same tests at independent lab facilities. Ouch!
Reimbursement snag trips up local DNA testing firm
Strand Diagnostics LLC’s Know Error test uses DNA analysis to make sure a tissue sample that has been declared cancerous does, indeed, belong to the patient doctors think it does. But Strand is having trouble convincing Medicare that the test is medically necessary.
Why hospitals leave the inner city, in one chart
Since hospitals lose money on just about every patient except those with private insurance, they have been closing inner-city facilities and opening new facilities in the suburbs for the past four decades.