Tag: Health insurance
Obamacare enrollments outpace last year
January 11, 2017HME News Staff
WASHINGTON - More than 11.5 million people nationwide were signed up for Health Insurance Marketplace coverage as of Dec. 24, 2016, according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services.That's an increase of 286,000 compared to the same period the previous year.Additionally, more than 700,000 residents of New York and Minnesota also signed up through the Basic Health Programs offered by those states, bringing the total to 12.2 million enrolled.More than 8.7 million people signed...
Providers absorb hikes in premiums
November 23, 2016Tracy Orzel
As health insurance costs continue to skyrocket, HME providers are finding themselves weighing rising premiums for themselves against high-deductible healthcare plans for their employees.“We just renewed our plan and we had a slight increase in premiums, but no change in benefits,” said Wayne Slavitt, founder and CEO of Mobül in Long Beach, Calif.Dan Afrasiabi, president of Anchorage, Alaska-based Geneva Woods, was facing a $600,000 increase in premium payments in 2017. Instead, the...
Law has 'minimal impact' on providers, good or bad
April 10, 2015Tracy Orzel
YARMOUTH, Maine - A provision in the Affordable Care Act that mandates insurance coverage hasn't necessarily resulted in increased business for HME providers.Even though about 16 million people now have health coverage thanks to the ACA, provider Doug Westerdahl says the law hasn't had a material impact on his business, which is predominantly complex rehab.“If you were disabled, somehow, some way, you already had insurance before the ACA,” said Westerdahl, president of Rochester, N.Y.-based...
Is Big Brother watching you sleep?
January 25, 2010Theresa Flaherty, Managing Editor
This statement caught my eye:
I supported national health insurance until I became Medicare-eligible this year.
After chuckling at that statement, I read on. It's always interesting to get a patient's perspective on the industry—its rules, its regs, its technology. In this case, the writer is a new CPAP patient. Turns out, she doesn't like having Medicare monitor how often she uses the therapy.
Medicare monitored my usage during the first month and threatened to...