MedWorm provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest medical blog items that have been tagged with 'health insurance companies'. Sat, 03 Sep 2011 03:01:27 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4405776&cid=t_190125_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fstate-of-healthcare-in-the-union%2F2011.01.27 Short and sweet. That’s how President Obama addressed healthcare reform in his State of the Union address [Tuesday] night. In less than 700 words, he outlined how he’d improve but not retreat on what’s been enacted into law. He’s willing to work on changes, he said, naming malpractice reform and reducing onerous paperwork burdens for small businesses. But, he cautioned, “What I’m not willing to do is go back to the days when insurance companies could deny someone coverage because of a pre-existing condition.” President Obama had invited two real people to his address to highlight the law’s successes. One is a brain cancer survivor who can access health insurance through high-risk pools created by the law. The other is a small business owner w... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4405776 Thu, 27 Jan 2011 16:00:00 +0100 4405776 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4190148&cid=t_190125_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fworkers-compensation-a-model-for-the-future-of-american-healthcare%2F2010.11.22 There’s a country with an unusual healthcare system. In it, you often spend about as much time with your lawyer as you do your doctor. There are special courts set up to decide what kinds of treatment you are allowed to have. And doctors have to be careful that they don’t say or do the wrong thing, or else they risk being blackballed by insurance companies. The country:  The United States of America. You may not realize it, but if you hurt your back at work you end up in a different healthcare system than if you hurt your back at home. Sure, you may end up with similar doctors or hospitals, but your experience of healthcare will be completely different. Here’s why. If you get hurt at work, you’re covered by the “workers compensation” system. That system has its roots over ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4190148 Tue, 23 Nov 2010 02:00:49 +0100 4190148 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4190150&cid=t_190125_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fthe-rationing-of-healthcare%2F2010.11.22 Do you recall the severe rationing of food and water the Chilean miners had to endure to survive? The rationing was done to stretch their limited resources. I would argue the state of Arizona’s new policy to not cover organ transplants for patients on Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) or their version of Medicaid is a similar form of rationing. AHCCCS, as many Medicaid programs, is underfunded. They are trying to operate on a limited budget. Something has to give. Sadly in this case, many (NPR reports 98) had already been granted approval for organ transplants which they may not receive. Francisco Felix, 32, who due to hepatitis-C needs a liver transplant, is reported to have made it to the operating room, prepped and ready for his life-saving liver transplant when d... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4190150 Mon, 22 Nov 2010 21:00:00 +0100 4190150 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4074062&cid=t_190125_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fun-insurance-reform%2F2010.10.15 Who doesn’t need insurance reform? Why, the insurers like Aetna, Cigna, and BCS Insurance, that’s who! From Emergency Physicians Monthly: By threatening to raise health care premiums by 200 percent or threatening to drop coverage altogether, the companies got the Department of Health and Human Services to cave. Now the companies have our government’s blessing to continue offering “insurance” to their employees that is capped at a few thousand dollars per year instead of the $750,000 required in the health care law. Perhaps GruntDoc said it best: “I am not an Obamacare fan, and would like it repealed, with smaller, more focused Bipartisan fixes, but if the government is going to pass something then roll over this easily to special interests… it’s already worse th... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4074062 Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:00:00 +0100 4074062 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4053289&cid=t_190125_87_f&fid=39187&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgetbetterhealth.com%2Fhow-to-pick-good-health-insurance%2F2010.10.10 Unless your doctor is a policy expert, in healthcare administration, a researcher, an author or blogger, I seriously doubt he will be reviewing an important report card that helps you pick the best health insurance plan that keeps you healthy. Published annually by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), this year’s report card ranks 227 health plans across the country on their ability to keep you healthy and well, treat you quickly, and how patients feel about their insurance coverage. Because unlike banking or airlines where there is not much difference in ATM machines or planes, there is a big difference in whether a health insurance plan helps in keeping its enrollees healthy. Do children get their vaccinations? Do healthy mothers get screened for breast cancer or ... Better Health blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4053289 Sun, 10 Oct 2010 14:00:00 +0100 4053289 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3056699&cid=t_190125_109_f&fid=34750&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpsychcentral.com%2Fblog%2Farchives%2F2009%2F12%2F03%2Fmental-health-parity-loopholes%2F While the national mental health parity law takes effect on January 1, 2010, it does not trump existing state laws that mandate that mental disorder diagnoses are treated and covered equally as their physical health brethren. If you are covered by health insurance, come January 1, your mental health treatment cannot be any more limited than your physical health coverage. California is one such state that has had such a mental health parity law on the books since 2000, so we have nine years of lessons from that state. Recently, a study was released that examined how the law affected people who sought out mental health treatment. Shari Roan with the Los Angeles Times has the coverage. The study, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Admin... World of Psychology blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3056699 Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:45:38 +0100 3056699 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1564243&cid=t_190125_136_f&fid=36032&url=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.healthtalk.com%2Fbreast-cancer%2Flife-with-breast-cancer%2Fwe-the-people-demand-healthcare-reform%2F Last week, CNN reported that lobbyists spend 2.5 billion dollars to influence the American government. As startling as that figure is, a full 20 percent of that (about 500 million dollars), is spent by the healthcare industry. Imagine, that is approximately 1.2 million dollars on healthcare for each man woman and child in the United States. I don’t know about you, but by my calculations that is enough money to ensure coverage for everybody. Even more provoking is the question of how much profit is made by the health insurance industry if they can afford to throw away this kind of money to influence policy? Further, how is this money spent, who does it go to and what do they do with it? For the sake of all Americans we need answers to these questions. While most families are struggling to... Life with Breast Cancer blogs http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1564243 Thu, 03 Jul 2008 00:09:14 +0100 1564243