Healthcare Finance Staff
Enrollment in managed Medicaid plans is on the rise, according to Mark Farrah Associates, a Kennebunk, Me.-based data aggregator and publisher of health plan market data.
More than 600 people descended on the New Hampshire Statehouse to protest Medicaid cuts. A public hearing on the budget cuts drew public comments that stretched for more than 6 hours from people objecting to a list of cuts to Medicaid including in-home support services, mental health grants and bloc grants to the state's 13 largest hospitals.
Long-term care costs are still rising, but not as much as other goods and services, according to John Hancock Financial by LifePlans.
People with low incomes or chronic health problems who enroll in high-deductible health plans are at no more risk for cutting back on needed healthcare than other people who enroll in the plans, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
The average per capita cost of healthcare services covered by commercial insurance and Medicare programs increased by 6.19 percent over the 12 months ending February 2011, according to the Standard & Poor's Healthcare Economic Composite Index. This is a drop from the 6.31 percent increase in annual growth rate posted in January 2011 for this index.
The rising demand for medical services to treat aging baby boomers, combined with shifts in approaches to treatments to curb rising costs, will significantly increase the need for new and refurbished medical office buildings in the decades ahead, says a new report.
While many employers expect an increase in the cost of providing benefits to employees, two-thirds of them responding to a new survey from Deloitte are making no immediate changes to their benefit programs, signaling a "wait and see" approach for final healthcare reform provisions that will likely reduce plan design flexibility.
Large employers are rethinking their retiree healthcare strategy as a result of federal healthcare reform, according to Aon Hewitt, a global human resource consulting and outsourcing business of Aon Corporation.
During the first quarter of 2011, $54.4 billion was spent to finance mergers and acquisitions in the healthcare industry, up 65 percent from the $32.9 billion spent in the first quarter of 2010, according to a new report from Irving Levin Associates.
Amedisys, a Louisiana-based home health and hospice company, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Beacon Hospice.