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The measure would allow Medicare beneficiaries to visit an audiologist to get a hearing test to diagnose a hearing problem without first being referred by a physician or nurse practitioner.
A new federal calculation reduces by $50 the amount a family can put aside in 2018 in these accounts to pay medical bills. Anyone who has already funded the account at a higher level will need to adjust or deal with the tax consequences next year.
In a program called OB Nest, Mayo has been using a telemedicine program in its obstetrics clinic in Rochester, Minn., that allows low-risk expectant mothers to forego some standard prenatal visits.
Federal health officials recommend that adults get a number of vaccinations, including protections against shingles, the flu, pneumonia, tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. But immunization rates are generally low.
Some health systems are encouraging selected ill emergency department patients who are stable and don’t need intensive, round-the-clock care to opt for hospital-level care at home.
In states that are instituting work requirements for Medicaid coverage, refusing to get a job will not likely make you eligible for subsidies to buy a marketplace plan.
The insurer says it is not usually medically necessary to have an anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist on hand during the common surgery.
But state officials are trying to get assurances from the Internal Revenue Service that the new law does not conflict with federal rules for health savings accounts.
President Donald Trump’s decision to stop paying cost-sharing reduction subsidies means the federal government will reduce its funding of the Basic Health Program that provides low-cost coverage to more than 800,000 low-income people in those two states.
While the federal health law made insurers cover the full cost of screening colonoscopies, consumers with a history of polyps who need more frequent tests may have to pick up some costs.
But advocates and consultants say the tax credits are unlikely to persuade many employers to offer such benefits.
The newer images are more expensive, but it’s not yet clear if they are more effective in catching cancers that will kill.
Officials want clinicians to discuss how use of medical marijuana could interact with other parts of their care.
Dr. Rana Awdish was completing a fellowship in critical care when she became critically ill herself. Now, she helps other doctors understand the patient’s perspective.
The House sought to eliminate the tax deduction, generally used by people with serious illnesses or those who need long-term care services but it was eventually restored in the final bill — and expanded.
These accounts are exempt from taxes and linked to high-deductible health plans. Republicans tried last summer in their unsuccessful efforts to replace the health law to make the accounts more enticing for consumers, but they didn’t make those changes in the current tax bill.
Although in most states the insurance marketplace deadline is Friday, some consumers might be entitled to a special enrollment period if their 2017 plan is being discontinued or they are from states designated by the federal government as hurricane disaster areas.
People who have a plan from the health law’s marketplace and who don’t actively shop for a new one will be auto-enrolled on Dec. 16. But unlike past years, most people won’t be able to change those plans if they don’t like them.
With less federal funding and marketing, local groups are feeling the pressure to keep up enrollment in the plans offered through the federal health law’s marketplace.
Even though the federal health law allows young adults to stay on their parents’ plan, those children are generally responsible for their own debts.
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