Need rotator cuff surgery and wondering what it’s going to cost you? The Texas Department of Insurance’s new website ̶ TexasHealthcareCosts.org ̶ provides cost information on more than 200 of the most common medical procedures, including many tests, surgeries, and office visits. Read the news release Visit TexasHealthcareCosts.org
The next great healthcare war is already starting. It’ll be about costs this time, not coverage, and Democrats are the ones firing the first shots – though neither party has a complete strategy just yet.
Just as states are increasingly taking action against the practice of balance billing—wherein health care providers can bill patients for any amounts still outstanding when an insurer has paid up to a predetermined ceiling for care provided—the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to launch a new payment model expanding that practice. CMS announced its plan […]
The Department of Labor’s Employee Benefits Security Administration posted the following: Mental Health Parity Implementation Proposed FAQs Part 39, available at https://www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/ebsa/about-ebsa/our-activities/resource-center/faqs/aca-part-39-proposed.pdf DOL 2018 Report to Congress: Pathway to Full Parity, available at https://www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/ebsa/laws-and-regulations/laws/mental-health-parity/dol-report-to-congress-2018-pathway-to-full-parity.pdf FY2017 MHPAEA Enforcement Fact Sheet, available at https://www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/ebsa/about-ebsa/our-activities/resource-center/fact-sheets/mhpaea-enforcement-2017.pdf 2018 MHPAEA Self-Compliance Tool, available at https://www.dol.gov/sites/default/files/ebsa/about-ebsa/our-activities/resource-center/publications/compliance-assistance-guide-appendix-a-mhpaea.pdf Revised Draft MHPAEA Disclosure Template (issues April 23, 2018), available […]
Saturdays at Mercy Medical Center used to be perversely lucrative. The dialysis clinic across the street was closed on weekends. That meant the downtown Baltimore hospital would see patients with failing kidneys who should have gone to the dialysis center. So Mercy admitted them, collecting as much as $30,000 for treatment that typically costs hundreds of dollars.
Because of runaway health care costs, Texas is on a path to cut funding or raise taxes. The percentage of the budget spent on health care, for our employees and those on medical assistance programs, continues to increase. This leaves less money available for schools, roads and tax relief.