In a scramble before open enrollment for the health insurance
exchanges begins in October, Enroll America on Tuesday will
launch Get America Covered, a campaign to educate Americans about
the coverage options available to them under the 2010 health
reform law.
About half of Americans say they don’t know how the Affordable
Care Act will affect them. Four in 10 think the 2010 law has been
repealed or overturned, or they are unsure where it stands. So
chances are good that when the major provisions kick in next
year, including online health insurance marketplaces and new
standards for health plan costs and coverage, people are going to
have questions. Lots of questions. When they do, the biggest one
of all may be where to turn for answers.
There’s good news for most companies that provide health benefits
for their employees: America’s slowdown in medical costs may be
turning into a trend, rather than a mere pause.
Doctors will begin taking patients Wednesday at Kaiser
Permanente’s newest South Bay medical facility in Carson. The
three-story building has been under construction for a
year.
John Calderone, PhD, Chief Executive Officer at Olympia Medical
Center in Los Angeles, CA, has been named the recipient of the
4th Annual Healthcare Administrator Award, presented by the
Association for Professionals in Infection Control and
Epidemiology (APIC). APIC is a multi-disciplinary, voluntary,
international organization promoting wellness and prevention of
Infection world-wide by advancing health care epidemiology. Its
headquarters is located in Washington D.C.
California’s budget agreement announced and approved last week
puts a couple hotly contested health care issues on hold, making
some stakeholders nervous and angry, but for the most part, this
year’s balancing act is kinder to health and social services than
any spending plan over the past half decade, according to
legislators and veteran Sacramento watchers.
A nonprofit patient-advocacy organization based in Sacramento has
prepared a guide to help consumers navigate open enrollment
through Covered California this fall.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Patient crowding and boarding in Emergency Departments (EDs)
impair the quality of care as well as patient safety and
satisfaction. Improved timing of inpatient discharges could
positively affect ED boarding, and this hypothesis can be tested
with computer modeling.
Less than five months before the Affordable Care Act fully kicks
in, hospitals are improving care and saving millions of dollars
with one of the least touted but potentially most effective
provisions of the law.
Health care professionals interested in learning more about,
Sepsis, Surgical Safety, Perinatal Safety and HAI – C. Difficile
can review highlights from the most recent Phase II kickoff
Southern California Patient Safety First Collaborative meeting.
A push to increase the number of nurses per patient at New York’s
185 acute care hospitals pits promises of fewer patient deaths
and complications against a billion dollars or more in annual
health care costs.
In a office decorated with Chinese art and diagrams of body
parts, Dr. George Ma cares for more than 4,000 patients.
Nearly three-quarters are covered by Medi-Cal, the state’s public
insurance program for low-income Californians, and Ma said he
receives $10 a month to treat most of them.
Orange County supervisors on Tuesday exempted themselves from an
across-the-board 5 percent cut imposed on virtually every
department during the county’s annual public hearing aimed at
crafting a $5.4-billion budget for the next fiscal year.
The nation’s complicated healthcare overhaul is proving to be a
surprising source of work: People are needed to explain the law’s
provisions to consumers.
Be prepared for a cutback in health care availability starting in
a matter of weeks in California. Courts have ruled that
Sacramento could cut back the reimbursement for hospitals,
doctors and drugs. Doctors have already stated they will
take no more Medi-Cal patients under the current payment
schedule. Will doctors be willing to lose more money?
Or, will they have to increase the cost of health care to those
that have insurance—thereby making insurance more expensive, so
fewer people can afford it?
Marquesha Harris was one of an estimated 8,000 people who
descended on Sacramento Tuesday for one of the biggest health
care protests ever at the Capitol. She wasn’t up on the specific
details of the provider rate cut at the center of the protest,
but she was sure of one thing: There have been too many cuts to
Medi-Cal, she said.
Diana Hendel, CEO of Long Beach Memorial, Community Hospital Long
Beach and Miller Children’s Hospital Long Beach, was recently
honored with the Women in Health Administration’s Woman of the
Year Award, becoming the eighth person to receive the honor
during the group’s 32-year history.
Health insurance firms – among them Anthem Blue Cross and Blue
Shield of California – medical professional associations -
including the California Hospital Association and the California
Medical Association and the Service Employees International
Union-United Healthcare Workers West bused thousands of advocates
to Sacramento today for a huge Medi-Cal rally at the Capitol.
The volume of mergers and acquisitions in healthcare is
“consistent with efforts to try to achieve economies of scale…
and changes in demand and particularly to realign and enhance
services,” says a report from the American Hospital Association.
Spending six months at a world-renowned hospital institution has
been an incredibly insightful and uplifting experience for me. As
part of the Master’s in Biomedical Informatics Program, every
student must complete a practicum project, in which theory is put
into practice. This degree program was recently created to fill
the demand for medical and non-medical professionals that are
able to utilize technology, like electronic medical records, to
improve patient care.
The U.S. healthcare system is complex, confusing and difficult to
understand, according to a majority of respondents to the 2012
Deloitte Consumer Survey. Many consumers don’t understand what
factors cause limited access or uncoordinated care; requirements
and limitations involved with both public and private health
insurance coverage; conflicting interests amongst healthcare
providers; or even high charges that leave many dumbfounded,
disillusioned or even financially broke.
Several members of the Los Angeles congressional delegation asked
the federal government Tuesday to postpone moving hundreds of
thousands of chronically ill seniors and disabled patients into
managed care.
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