Health Insurance
Trends in health insurance coverage are driving an increase in medical debt: these include inadequate enrollment in comprehensive health care coverage and high-deductible and skinny health plans that intentionally push more costs onto patients.
鈥淗ealth insurance should be a bridge to medical care, not a barrier. Yet too many commercial health insurance policies often delay, disrupt and deny medically necessary care to patients,鈥 writes AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack in an op-ed today in U.S. News & World Report.
The departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and the Treasury released a proposed rule that seeks to ensure commercial health plans comply with the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, which prohibits them from imposing more restrictive requirements on mental health or鈥
Health insurance policies and practices are reducing access to medical care, driving up health care costs and increasing clinician burden and burnout, according to patients and clinicians surveyed by Morning Consult for the AHA.
The Administration released a proposed rule intended to limit the sale of non-comprehensive health care coverage and promote greater consumer understanding of their coverage options.
In a letter to governors, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra encouraged states to use all available options (https://www.medicaid.gov/resources-for-states/downloads/state-strategies-to-prevent-procedural-terminations.pdf) to streamline Medicaid and Children鈥檚 Health Insurance鈥
Escalating costs associated with managing their own practice coupled with burdensome insurer policies and regulatory requirements are some of the factors driving physicians to seek employment in other practice settings, according to a new report released by the AHA.
Following discussions between the 黑料正能量 Association and United Healthcare, the insurer announced May 31 a refocused gastroenterology policy that relies on additional provider education rather than prior authorizations to address the insurer鈥檚 concerns about possible overutilization.
The share of uninsured Americans fell 0.8 percentage point in 2022 to 8.4%, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported this week. That鈥檚 about 2.4 million fewer uninsured people than a year ago.
The AHA, joined by the Federation of 黑料正能量s, Catholic Health Association of the United States, America鈥檚 Essential Hospitals, and Association of American Medical Colleges, yesterday urged the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to keep in place pending appeal an Affordable Care鈥