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Keyword: healthinsurance

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  • Humana Medicare "Take Advantantage" Plan

    02/06/2024 4:57:01 AM PST · by tired&retired · 86 replies
    VANITY
    How can Humana change the coverage after the patient is admitted? I logged into the indiviual account and printed the "My Benefits" in November when a close friend was hospitalized for a severe stroke. I have full medical and legal POA. The "Plan Benefits" showed FULL PAYMENT Coverage for skilled nursing through day 100. While she was admitted, they changed her plan to only cover 80% through day 100. With a $203 per day co-pay, that is a lot of money she doesn't have. How can they change the plan during continuous admission? In addition, they keep denying any payment...
  • Maine citizens with private insurance can now get abortions for ‘free’ and without limit

    01/09/2024 2:01:29 AM PST · by Morgana · 17 replies
    Live Action News ^ | January 6, 2024 | Nancy Flanders
    A new pro-abortion law took effect in Maine on January 1, preventing private health insurance companies in the state from carrying deductibles or co-pays for abortions. LD 935, An Act to Remove Barriers to Abortion Coverage in Private Insurance, was signed by pro-abortion Gov. Janet Mills (D) over the summer along with numerous additional pro-abortion bills. It prohibits private insurers from imposing “deductible, copayment, coinsurance or other cost-sharing requirement” for any patient who undergoes an abortion. Warning: Images below may be disturbing to readers. Abortion is not health care Maine’s law gives abortion priority above other “health care” — but...
  • tah Offering Taxpayer-Funded Health Insurance to Illegal Alien Children

    01/04/2024 2:06:57 PM PST · by ChicagoConservative27 · 12 replies
    Breitbart ^ | 01/04/2024 | JOHN BINDER
    The state of Utah is now offering taxpayer-funded health insurance to children who arrived illegally in the United States thanks to a plan approved last year by Democrat and Republican legislators. Under an amended version of Utah’s Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), children in the U.S. illegally are eligible to receive taxpayer-funded medical benefits. Open enrollment for the amended program started on January 1. For Utah taxpayers, the annual bill is about $4.5 million and about 2,000 illegal alien children are expected to enroll in the amended program. According to the latest estimates, nearly 150,000 illegal aliens reside in Utah...
  • California becomes first state to offer health insurance to all eligible undocumented adults

    12/29/2023 8:06:47 AM PST · by artichokegrower · 30 replies
    Cal Matters ^ | DECEMBER 28, 2023 | KRISTEN HWANG
    Undocumented Californians are leaving health care clinics with “smiles” after they learn they’re newly eligible for Medi-Cal insurance. The health insurance expansion was decades in the making for immigrant advocates.
  • CVS’s Shift In Drug Markups Could Stop Big Pharma’s Price Gouging

    12/15/2023 11:26:24 AM PST · by eyeamok · 39 replies
    The Federalist ^ | 12/15/23 | Christopher Jacobs
    Several years ago, I realized I could save hundreds of dollars on prescription drugs by not using my health insurance. Instead, I pay using cash and a drug discount program like GoodRx. I realized this savings because my insurer/PBM had an incentive to keep list prices high. In plain English, my insurer overcharged me for my prescriptions so it could collect big rebates from drug companies.
  • Find out why your health insurer denied your claim

    11/23/2023 12:48:22 AM PST · by texas booster · 13 replies
    Pro Publica ^ | Nov 8 2023 | Maya Miller, Ash Ngu
    What’s a Claim File? Why Should I Request One?A claim file is a collection of the information your insurer used to decide whether it would pay for your medical treatment or services. Most people in the U.S. facing a denial have the right to request their claim file from their insurer. It can include internal correspondence, recordings of phone calls, case notes, medical records and other relevant information.Information in your claim file can be critical when appealing denials. Some patients told us they received case notes showing that their insurer’s decision was the outcome of cost-cutting programs. Others have gotten...
  • Doctors and patients try to shame insurers online to reverse prior authorization denials

    09/17/2023 5:44:33 PM PDT · by ConservativeMind · 17 replies
    Medical Xpress / KFF Health News ^ | Aug. 29, 2023 | Lauren Sausser
    …Prior authorization is a common cost-cutting tool used by health insurers that requires patients and doctors to secure approval before moving forward with many tests, procedures, and prescription medications. Insurers say the process helps them control costs by preventing medically unnecessary care… That's why desperate patients like Nix—and even some physicians—say they have turned to publicly shaming insurance companies on social media to get tests, drugs, and treatments approved… But some patient advocates and health policy experts question whether insurers are using prior authorization as "a possible loophole" to this prohibition, as a way of denying care to patients with...
  • Hurdles in health care: Navigating insurance approvals

    09/17/2023 12:56:48 PM PDT · by ConservativeMind · 6 replies
    For patients with chronic conditions, including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), newer drugs like biologics can be effective—but also expensive. As a result, many insurance companies have limited access to these medications—and physicians are forced to jump through hoops. According to a recent story, insurance companies sometimes have their physicians reject claims without even reading them. To address these challenges, Athos Bousvaros, MD, MPH is calling for change—and providing specialists with the tools they need to navigate an increasingly difficult approval process. In a recent paper, Bousvaros and his colleague Stacy Kahn, MD detail how complicated the approval and denial process...
  • Health-Insurance Costs Are Taking Biggest Jumps in Years

    09/07/2023 10:47:07 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 24 replies
    WSJ ^ | Sept. 7, 2023 5:30 am ET | By Anna Wilde Mathews
    Health-insurance costs are climbing at the steepest rate in years, walloping businesses and their workers. Costs for employer coverage are expected to surge around 6.5% for 2024, according to major benefits consulting firms Mercer and Willis Towers Watson, which provided their survey results exclusively to The Wall Street Journal. Willis Towers Watson, which goes by the initials WTW, projects the increase will be the biggest in more than a decade. Such a boost could add significantly to the price tag for employer plans that already average more than $14,600 a year per employee, driving up health-insurance costs that are among...
  • How To Effectively Protest a Health Insurance "Vaccine Surcharge"

    03/16/2023 9:33:06 AM PDT · by soozla · 46 replies
    Self | 03/16/2023 | Self
    Is anyone else experiencing this? Hubby is employed and we get health insurance through his employer. I am an "insured dependent" and not being charged - so MY non-vaxx status doesn't matter (evidently). He, however, is paying a surcharge for not being vaccinated - to the tune of $100/mo. He has had COVID twice and certainly should be considered "naturally immune", at this point. We have written to HR (who seems to be the point of contact for this) protesting the surcharge, sent a Dr's letter saying he (our Dr) does not recommend the shot for my husband (our Dr...
  • Do Americans Really Want Universal Health Insurance?

    01/29/2023 8:57:08 PM PST · by SeekAndFind · 32 replies
    American Thinker ^ | 01/29/2023 | Deane Waldman, M.D.
    A recently released Gallup poll on healthcare was simultaneously right and wrong. It got statistically correct answers but asked the wrong questions.Fifty-seven percent of the 1,020 adults polled responded that "the federal government should ensure all Americans have healthcare coverage," presumably insurance. Despite assigning healthcare responsibility to Washington, 53 percent wanted private insurance rather than government-supplied. The article shied away from stating an inconvenient truth: what Americans say they want will not achieve what they really want and need. Most Americans do not distinguish healthcare from health care. As one word, healthcare refers to a massive system that consumes 18...
  • ‘Storm’ of Inflation Looms for Health Insurance Premiums in 2023

    10/30/2022 8:38:56 AM PDT · by BenLurkin · 31 replies
    Annual premiums for family health insurance are expected to skyrocket to higher rates in 2023 due to rampant inflation, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report. While family rates increased modestly by about one percent to $22,463 in 2022 from $22,221 in 2021, which is well below the national overall inflation growth of 8.2 percent, employers are now sounding the alarm that premiums may surge next year, according to the 2022 KFF Employer Health Benefits Survey. “Employers are already concerned about what they pay for health premiums, but this could be the calm before the storm, as recent inflation suggests...
  • Health insurers seeking major rate increases in New York for 2023

    06/17/2022 6:30:23 AM PDT · by 1Old Pro · 12 replies
    Times Union ^ | June 17, 2022 | Larry Rulison
    ALBANY - Add your health insurance premiums to the long list of necessities that are going to get harder to pay for amid rampant inflation, the pandemic and war in Ukraine. Heath insurers serving individuals and companies in the state are requesting increases as high as 30 percent in some cases, although the weighted average is 18.7 percent for individuals and 16.5 percent for the so-called small group employer market that includes companies under 100 people.
  • ObamaCare premium hikes are making Democrats sick

    06/07/2022 9:56:29 PM PDT · by where's_the_Outrage? · 11 replies
    The Hill ^ | June 7, 2022 | Merrill Matthews
    Many Democrats seem to get sick in the fall during election years from a chronic disease known as premium increase-itis. That’s when Affordable Care Act (i.e., ObamaCare) premiums are announced for the next year. And it appears that 2022 will see one of the worst outbreaks in years. As The Hill’s Peter Sullivan explains: “The American Rescue Plan signed by President Biden last year temporarily increased financial assistance under ObamaCare, but that increase is set to expire at the end of this year, causing an increase in [2023] premiums for enrollees in the health law unless Congress acts. “Notices about...
  • It’s actually good for California that Democrats collapsed over single-payer health care

    02/06/2022 7:37:09 AM PST · by Oldeconomybuyer · 16 replies
    The Sacramento Bee ^ | February 6, 2022 | BY ROB STUTZMAN
    In with a roar and out with a whimper. This is how we’ll remember a tedious progressive charade that was falsely billed as a righteous war to establish single-payer health care in California but instead fizzled and died in less than a day last week. Assemblyman Ash Kalra’s AB 1400 had dominated the attention of legislators in the first month of this year’s legislative session. Kalra, a San Jose Democrat, obediently carried the water of the radically progressive California Nurses Association (CNA) — and Bernie Sanders-inspired activists — while pushing a complete overhaul of health care in California. This legislation...
  • Home COVID tests to be covered by insurers starting Saturday

    01/10/2022 12:09:50 PM PST · by Oldeconomybuyer · 26 replies
    The Associated Press ^ | January 10, 2022 | By ZEKE MILLER
    WASHINGTON (AP) — Starting Saturday, private health insurers will be required to cover up to eight home COVID-19 tests per month for people on their plans. The Biden administration announced the change Monday as it looks to lower costs and make testing for the virus more convenient amid rising frustrations. President Joe Biden faced criticism over the holiday season for a shortage of at-home rapid tests as Americans traveled to see family amid the surge in cases from the more transmissible omicron variant. Now the administration is working to make COVID-19 home tests more accessible, both by increasing supply and...
  • Will Joe Biden Cancel His Fellow Seniors’ Medicare Plans?

    10/25/2021 10:57:31 AM PDT · by Kaslin · 8 replies
    The Federalist ^ | October 25, 2021 | Christopher Jacobs
    It's no surprise that someone who went out of his way to avoid paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in Medicare taxes would agree to jeopardize the Medicare coverage of 27 million beneficiaries.Twelve months after Joe Biden claimed at the final presidential debate that “not one single person, private insurance, would lose their insurance under my [health] plan,” Democrats stand on the precipice of turning Biden’s statement into a reprise of Barack Obama’s “If you like your plan, you can keep it” Lie of The Year. The effort could cost millions of seniors their private Medicare plans, as Democrats raid...
  • Delta Air Lines is raising health insurance premiums for unvaccinated employees by $200 a month to cover higher Covid costs

    08/25/2021 7:35:19 AM PDT · by Stravinsky · 102 replies
    CNBC ^ | Augustine 25, 2021 | Leslie Josephs
    Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian notified employees Wednesday that they will face $200 monthly increases on their health insurance premiums starting Nov. 1 if they aren't vaccinated against Covid-19, citing steep costs to cover employees who are hospitalized with the virus. Unvaccinated employees will face other restrictions, including indoor masking effective immediately and weekly Covid-19 tests starting Sept. 12 the Atlanta-based airline said in announcing new Covid policies for employees. The measures are the latest attempt by a U.S. corporation to drive up Covid vaccination rates. Delta stopped short of an outright mandate like rival United Airlines established earlier...
  • Free health insurance included in stimulus benefits for unemployment recipients

    07/03/2021 6:05:38 AM PDT · by buckalfa · 8 replies
    Nexstar Media Wire Via WKBN ^ | July 2, 2021 | Nexstar Media Wire Staff
    Along with $1,400 stimulus checks and monthly child tax credit payments, the American Rescue Plan has another important benefit available to people who qualified for unemployment assistance this year – free health care. The no-cost and low-cost health care plans became available on July 1, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). They will provide coverage through the end of the year. "The Biden-Harris Administration is focused on providing relief to millions of families who need to access health insurance coverage because they have been impacted by job losses or underemployment during the pandemic,” said HHS Secretary...
  • 7 Exorbitant Welfare Proposals Packed Into Biden’s ‘American Family Plan’

    05/03/2021 5:32:38 AM PDT · by Kaslin · 25 replies
    The Federalist ^ | May 3, 2021 | Elizabeth Bauer
    Biden's American Family Plan would dole out free college, free child care, free meals, and more. But does the math add up? Nope.President Biden released the provisions of his American Family Plan last week, and just like with his American Jobs Plan, the details are scant and the price tag is high.Even given the limited details, the plans ought to give everyone pause — and by “everyone” I don’t just mean conservatives who oppose massive welfare state expansions, but also those who agree with the objective of an increase in the social insurance system in America. There are some serious...