Policy and Legislation
Despite tort reform efforts aimed at reducing malpractice risk, a recent study indicates physicians are still worried about lawsuits, leading them to practice defensive medicine and driving up healthcare costs.
Three U.S. District judges presiding over legal challenges to the landmark federal healthcare law have held financial investments in the healthcare industry, according to a Center for Public Integrity review of their latest available financial disclosure forms.
Included in the latest Benefits Package blog carnival is a piece from Joe Paduda's Managed Care Matters, criticizing health plans and their industry groups for their contradictory attitudes to escalating hospital costs and government involvement in the health care system.
Americans' confidence in their ability to obtain and afford healthcare continued its decline in November, according to a consumer sentiment index by Thomson Reuters.
The Department of Health and Human Services has proposed new rules aimed at delivering new transparency and scrutiny to health insurance rate increases. Under the proposed rules the HHS will work with states to require health insurers to provide information for "unreasonable" rate hikes.
President Barack Obama has signed into law a bill that clarifies the term "creditor" in the Red Flags Rule, excluding doctors and other small businesses.
A new report by the Government Accountability Office has found that the Federal Communications Commission is falling short on managing the telecommunication needs of rural healthcare providers.
My crystal ball is a little foggy so I decided to ask my Twitter followers to help compile a list of health care predictions for 2011. I've integrated my thoughts with theirs and organized the predictions into four themes.
Health organizations will undergo a strategy makeover in 2011 as they react to new rules and payment models, continuing cost pressures and new customer demands, according to the "Top Health Industry Issues of 2011," published today by PwC's Health Research Institute.
In staking out their position, many conservatives and most libertarians convey health care as a privilege, not a right. Fair enough.