Rural healthcare: A look at how rural hospital alliance is helping members survive
The alliance also helps the rural hospitals recruit doctors and other medical providers, many of whom are reluctant to work, let alone live, in isolated areas.
No separation of church and wellness for ‘pastoral mental health counselors’
Mental health therapists most often leave issues of faith outside their office doors, even for patients who are religious. But one class of counselors believes a nonsectarian model doesn’t serve everyone equally well. “On a feeling level, people want a safe, respectful place, to ponder the tons of questions that come begging in hard times,” […]
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
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.
All eyes on Vermont as it blazes a single-payer trail
BERLIN, Vt. – Dr. Marvin Malek has been yearning and advocating for a publicly financed, single-payer health care system for at least two decades. Now, as Vermont stands on the threshold of being the first state to launch such a plan, he’s confessing to trepidation. “I am pretty damn nervous,” he confided before bounding off […]
States battle asthma as numbers grow
In a valley wedged between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, St. Louis often finds itself beset by a stationary air mass that only a severe storm of some kind can dislodge. St. Louis is also an industrial city with high humidity, so it’s no wonder it usually makes the list of worst places for asthmatics […]
Report: States with no Medicaid expansion leave 3.7M mentally ill with no insurance
Some might consider Kelly Troyer of South Carolina lucky. She isn’t one of them. Thanks to the generosity of her church and family members, she receives some treatment for the depression and post-traumatic stress disorder she suffers as a result ...
The rise of medical identity theft in healthcare
If modern technology has ushered in a plague of identity theft, one particular strain of the disease has emerged as most virulent: medical identity theft. Last month, the Identity Theft Resource Centerproduced a surveyshowing that medical-related identity theft accounted for 43 percent of all identity thefts reported in the United States in 2013. That is a far greater […]
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A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
Affordable Care Act: Kids’ dental coverage uncertain under Obamacare
Children’s health advocates were overjoyed when they learned that dental care for kids would be one of the “essential benefits” in the insurance policies on the Affordable Care Act health exchanges. Suddenly, it appeared possible that combined with other ACA-related changes, as many as 8.7 million children would gain dental coverage by the year 2018. […]
There are drugs to help fight painkiller addiction, but access is an issue with insurer restrictions
To Mark Publicker, a doctor in Portland, Maine, who practices addiction medicine, it’s a clear case of discrimination. You wouldn’t deprive a diabetic of insulin. You wouldn’t stop giving hypertension drugs to a patient with high blood pressure after successful treatment. You wouldn’t hold back a statin from a patient with high cholesterol. Yet Publicker’s […]
Health care cuts from vaccinations to research
Sequestration spares Medicaid and almost all of Medicare, but automatic cuts to other federal health care programs will make it more difficult for low-income Americans to get maternal and infant care, vaccinate their children, and receive treatment for...
In New York, palliative care adds a layer of support for the seriously ill
New York State felt so strongly about the importance of palliative care that last year it enacted pioneering legislation to make certain all those with advanced illnesses had access to this sort of treatment. Now other states are considering following New York’s lead.
Maximize Revenue and Patient Care with Strategic Weight Loss Management
We will highlight Build My Health's revenue practice management tools, which could help physician practices add up to $250,000 to their practices.
Medicaid expansion put spotlight on access to primary care
The Affordable Care Act will usher at least seven million more Americans into Medicaid next year, but the question of whether enough doctors will be there to welcome them is keeping some state health policymakers up at night. A report published last ye...
Medicaid expansion will help states restore lost mental healthcare money
Because Medicaid includes mental-health benefits, those states that opt into the Medicaid expansion included in President Obama’s Affordable Care Act will be able to make mental health coverage available to thousands of their citizens who do not now have it.
Patients, advocates waiting for federal rules on parity for behavioral health coverage
Danielle Moles is anorexic, which in her case played out not only in a near-starvation diet but also in obsessive running. She ran during tornados. She ran in temperatures that fell to 20 degrees below zero and froze her ponytail solid. She ran a marat...