Community Benefit

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 imposes new requirements for tax-exempt hospitals to maintain levels of community benefit-related care. These hospitals must conduct assessments of the level of need for healthcare in their communities, notify patients of financial assistance policies available to them, and restrict charges to uninsured, indigent patients to the same levels charged to insured patients. A 2009 Health Affairs study notes nonprofit hospitals in Maryland, which make up virtually all hospitals in the state, spent more than $800 million on community benefit actions to maintain tax-exempt status in 2007.

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Calif. charity care standards questioned
Nonprofit hospitals in California are facing the possibility of having to prove they provide the necessary amount of charity care to justify their tax-exempt status.
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Post date: May 3, 2013
Kelsey Brimmer
News
Healthcare sector added jobs in April
During the month of April, the healthcare industry continued to add jobs, gaining 19,000 new positions, according to the new employment data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
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Post date: May 3, 2013
Kelsey Brimmer
News
Centerstone partners with Unity
Collaborations between primary care and behavioral health providers are not new but the leaders of two such organizations believe their newly formed joint venture is a winning formula.
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Post date: May 2, 2013
Stephanie Bouchard
News
Partnering with home health and hospice
A dominating theme in healthcare today is collaboration and partnership across all sectors of the industry in order to create a continuum of care. For the continuum of care to happen, partnerships must be struck between healthcare entities that haven't necessarily worked much together in the past. An early April webinar addressed how such partnerships can be successfully formed.
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Post date: May 2, 2013
Stephanie Bouchard
News
Opportunities for bending the cost curve
A new report from the Brookings Institution offers a framework for person-centered care that provides sustainable lowered costs and promotes higher quality care.
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Post date: April 30, 2013
Stephanie Bouchard
News
National Alzheimer's plan reviewed
The national plan to tackle Alzheimer's disease made strides in its first year but has much more ground to cover said witnesses testifying during a hearing Wednesday before the U.S. Senate's Special Committee on Aging.
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Post date: April 26, 2013
Stephanie Bouchard
News
AMA launches health outcome effort
The American Medical Association (AMA) launched on Monday a multi-year, multi-million dollar effort to improve health outcomes for those with cardiovascular disease and type-2 diabetes and to prevent it in those who may be at risk.
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Post date: April 23, 2013
Mary Mosquera
News
Trading for healthcare services
A growing number of small businesses are turning to bartering to get healthcare services they otherwise couldn't afford. It's a strategy that also offers benefits for the healthcare businesses providing the services.
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Post date: April 23, 2013
David Weldon
News
Magnet hospitals have lower death rates
According to research done by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and published in the May issue of Medical Care, magnet hospitals have both lower patient mortality rates and better patient outcomes, due in part to more investments in nursing at these organizations.
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Post date: April 22, 2013
Kelsey Brimmer
News
Ohio health systems form collaborative
University Hospitals, a healthcare system in northeast Ohio, has joined up with three smaller health systems in the state to create a new purchasing collaborative to save money on supplies and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of care delivery.
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Post date: April 19, 2013
Kelsey Brimmer
News
Hospitals profit from complications
Hospitals make more of a profit when surgical patients develop complications finds a new study published Wednesday in JAMA.
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Post date: April 17, 2013
Kelsey Brimmer
News
Publicly-reported data leads to quality
A recent study published in Health Affairs showed evidence that when a physician group's quality measures are publicly reported, they are more motivated to improve upon their overall care quality.
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Post date: April 16, 2013
Kelsey Brimmer
News
I don't really want my $127 medical loss ratio rebate
Under the Affordable Care Act, health plans have to issue rebates to policyholders if they don’t spend at least 80 or 85 percent of premiums on medical costs. Now that the law is in effect, about $1.3 billion is to be paid out.
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Post date: May 1, 2012
David Williams
Blog
When will dental and medical insurance be integrated?
It has never made sense to me to that dental insurance is not included in comprehensive medical insurance.
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Post date: March 30, 2012
David Williams
Blog
Two new programs to help curb hospital readmissions
With Medicare spending an estimated $12 billion on avoidable readmissions, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, two new programs are being introduced to help curb these costly, unneeded expenditures while improving patients’ quality of care.
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Post date: March 28, 2012
James Ellis and Aaron Razavi
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Health insurance mandate: $1M hospital bills show why it's needed
Mitt Romney is catching grief for a newly discovered interview where he defends the individual mandate in terms of personal responsibility, and cites the government or private payers picking up the tab for an uninsured person’s hospital care as “socialism.” Whether or not he still stands by that argument, there’s good logic to it.
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Post date: March 16, 2012
David Williams
Blog
Connecticut lines up home health aides: Commenter reactions
In conjunction with NPR news, Kaiser Health News reported this week that the state of Connecticut is divvying out a new plan to replace home nurses with hired home health aides, in order to administer medications for patients with chronic illnesses.
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Post date: March 15, 2012
Kelly Mehler
Blog
Rick Santorum on healthcare: Not much to write home about
Rick Santorum won three GOP contests yesterday: Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri, so I decided to take a look at where he stands on healthcare.
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Post date: February 10, 2012
David Williams
Blog
Repeal and replace or repeal and do nothing?
Remember how opponents of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) vowed to “repeal and replace” the measure? It was and is a great slogan but it’s no surprise that the sloganeers have been slow to follow through on the replace part -- even as they retain enthusiasm for pushing repeal.
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Post date: February 2, 2012
David Williams
Blog
Getting veterans off Medicaid
As states grapple with growing Medicaid costs in an era of sluggish economic growth and antipathy to taxes, they are very pleased when they find a way to increase benefits to citizens while reducing their own expenditures.
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Post date: January 18, 2012
David Williams
Blog
Maine Governor at odds with providers of care for children, elderly
Seventy five thousand beneficiaries may be cut by Maine's Medicaid system this year. MaineCare supports Maine's elderly, children and indigent, and while Governor Paul LePage stands by his cuts, beneficiaries and healthcare providers deem them "unacceptable."
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Post date: January 13, 2012
Kelly Mehler
Blog
2011 Recap: Meet your healthcare consumer
Recently, I came across Deloitte’s 2011 Survey of Health Care Consumers and as a Deloitte alumnus, I enjoyed seeing how the firm is tracking industry changes from the eyes of a patient.
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Post date: January 12, 2012
James C. Bohnsack
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Medicaid expansion: Will we get our money's worth?
Should we just hand uninsured adult diabetics $1000 per year rather than enrolling them in Medicaid?
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Post date: January 12, 2012
David Williams
Blog
Healthcare costs will influence patient choice
In a recent blog post, I discussed a growing trend in patient choice of healthcare providers being based on the cost of services. This has become most apparent in the willingness of private health insurers to provide the insured with provider options based on a "tiering" according to the level of deductibles or co-pays.
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Post date: January 6, 2012
Mike Stephens
Blog