Providing health care to an aging prison population is a large and growing cost for states. Not only do inmates develop debilitating conditions at a younger age than people who are not incarcerated, but caring for them in the harsh environment of prisons is far more expensive than it is on the outside. Of the […]
When emergency room patients are deemed “a danger to themselves or others,” every state requires hospitals to hold them until a psychiatrist conducts a face-to-face evaluation to decide whether it is safe to let them leave. In rural hospitals across the country, it can take days for a psychiatrist to show up and perform the […]
Nearly a decade before the Affordable Care Act, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and a few other states began creating all-payer claims databases (APCDs). Acting as trusted third parties, they required all commercial insurance carriers within their borders to hand over their claims data, including the prices paid. In the last three years, the number of […]
The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) was enacted in 1997 to extend health coverage to children in poor families with modest incomes too high to qualify for Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act now offers many of those same families federal subsidies through the health insurance exchanges, calling into question whether the program should be continued […]
Of the 25 states that already have expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, all but Arkansas, Iowa and Michigan simply added newly eligible adults to their existing Medicaid programs. That was the easiest approach. In contrast, the states that haven’t yet expanded Medicaid but are considering doing so want to tailor the program to […]
States are reporting far higher enrollment in Medicaid than in private insurance since the Affordable Care Act exchanges opened Oct. 1. In Maryland, for example, the number of newly eligible Medicaid enrollees is more than 25 times the number of people signed up for private coverage. Even some Medicaid experts say they are surprised at […]
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
For most uninsured Americans, the motivation for checking out the health insurance exchanges is simple – they could face stiff penalties if they don’t sign up. For Native Americans, the decision is more complicated. Longstanding treaties wi...
When the federal health law takes effect in January, some 30 million more Americans are expected to have health insurance, many for the first time. An already critical shortage of primary care providers may make a doctor’s appointment hard to com...
A hallmark of President Obama’s health law is that it requires insurers to cover early detection and disease prevention services at no cost to the patient. The new preventive care guidelines are intended to improve overall health, reduce the numb...
Consumers want to know: Will health insurance cost more, less, or about the same on the new health insurance exchanges? Politicians, for their own reasons, have the same question about the impact of the Affordable Care Act on insurance in 2014. Califor...
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
In Alabama, if you get your health insurance through your employer and you lose your job, you quickly realize there aren't a lot options for purchasing coverage on your own. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama has had a virtual monopoly in the state ...
The White House sums up the central idea behind the health care exchanges in the new federal health law with a simple motto: "more choices, greater competition." But even some stalwart supporters of the Affordable Care Act worry that in many states, p...
The governors of Ohio and Arkansas, seeking a way around conservative state legislators who refuse to expand Medicaid, want to insure some of their poorest residents using a market-based approach. The federal government appears likely to allow Republic...
RALEIGH, N.C. - Carol Steckel sides with the governors who have decided not to expand Medicaid. Newly appointed head of North Carolina's Medicaid program, she will oversee a top-to-bottom internal overhaul. A recent state audit showed the state's $13 billion Medicaid program spent more on administrative costs than nine other states with similarly sized programs. North Carolina is Steckel's third state post overseeing federal health programs. She was chief of federal health law implementation for Louisiana and led Alabama's Medicaid program from 1988-1992 and again from 2003-2010.
To make healthcare available to all the new patients who will be covered by the 2014 expansion, states are trying to loosen scope of practice laws that prevent nurse practitioners from playing the lead role in providing basic health services.
