We all know that completely different medical conditions can create the same effects on our patients’ work lives. That is, from the employer’s purely administrative standpoint, an absence is an absence regardless of its cause. Even medical care professionals react differently to similar effects rendered by completely different circumstances. A Personnel Crisis Let me give…
NEW YORK (Reuters)—A vast majority of Americans say the Medicare health program for the elderly should be able to negotiate with drug companies to set lower medication prices, a practice currently prohibited by law, according to a survey released on Friday. The poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 87% of people surveyed…
ZHENGZHOU, China (Reuters)—Just before midnight, the pavement outside the glowing high-rise towers of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University is littered with slumbering bodies. Splayed on colourful mats or tucked into folding cots, these are patients’ relatives. Inside, beds line hallways and crowd elevator lobbies, while relatives share gurneys with patients and doze in…
NEW YORK (Reuters)—The U.S. hospital and health insurance industries breathed a collective sigh of relief on Thursday after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld subsidies for individuals under President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. Shares in hospitals surged, with several hitting all-time highs, on the expectation that patients would be able to continue paying for services….
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is attempting to update the reimbursement process for Medicaid, which might relieve administrative burdens on specialists and improve access to services.
(Reuters)—A majority of Americans say Congress should make sure Obamacare subsidies to buy health insurance are available nationwide if the Supreme Court rules that the payments in at least 34 states are illegal, according to a poll released on Tuesday. The Kaiser Family Foundation poll surveyed 1,200 people from June 2 to June 9 in…
Rheumatologists worried about the future of their private practices might want to consider jumping onto the super group trend that allows physicians and other providers with similar services to team up to share opportunities and minimize financial burdens. The biggest concern for private practice physicians watching the trend but not yet embracing it is fear…
Whether you’re considering selling your practice, growing your practice or maintaining the status quo, it’s important to periodically do a checkup on your internal operations and compliance with the law. It’s always preferable to discover problems within your practice and correct them (if possible) before those issues are discovered by third parties, such as the…
SINGAPORE (Reuters)—Whoever was behind the latest theft of personal data from U.S. government computers, they appear to be following a new trend set by cybercriminals: targeting increasingly valuable medical records and personnel files. This data, experts say, is worth a lot more to cybercriminals than, say, credit card information. And the Office of Personnel Management…
NEW YORK (Reuters)—Medicare, the government-run health insurance program for elderly and disabled Americans, paid physicians $90 billion in 2013, up 17% from $77 billion in 2012, U.S. healthcare officials reported on Monday. Physician payments accounted for less than one-fifth of Medicare’s 2013 net outlays of $492 billion, which rose from $466 billion in 2012. Payments to…