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A Medicare trial aimed at averting billing fraud and waste in nonemergency ambulance service in eight states is drawing complaints from patients’ families and ambulance companies.
Congress left it to states to determine whether private Medigap plans are sold to the more than 9 million disabled people younger than 65 who qualify for Medicare. The result: rules vary across the country.
California cities increasingly are billing patients for paramedic services that they say were not covered by insurers. One 85-year-old woman took on city hall.
A relatively obscure category of health insurance -- "critical illness" insurance -- is catching on because, increasingly, conventional health plans have consumers paying a lot of out-of-pocket costs. Mark Zdechlik of Minnesota Public Radio explains the pros and cons of critical care insurance in this story that aired on NPR's Morning Edition.
People sometimes put together a variety of policies, such as short-term and critical illness plans, instead of buying more expensive comprehensive health coverage. But they likely will face federal health law penalties.
Officials have proposed establishing six options for the exchange plans that would set standard deductibles and maximum out-of-pocket spending limits, among other things.
Big, sparsely populated states such as Montana are dependent on air ambulances to get people to specialized medical care. But those lifesaving flights can be hugely expensive and not covered by insurance.
High-deductible health plans don’t necessarily trigger comparison shopping or informed health care choices by consumers, according to a survey published in Tuesday’s JAMA Internal Medicine.
Urban Institute researchers found that premiums and out-of-pocket costs are still a major concern for people seeking coverage on the health care marketplaces.
The website Infórmate offers resources and information to help dispel cultural myths that may keep Latinos from becoming live kidney donors.
Increased comparative information on health plans is helping consumers shop, says Margaret O’Kane, president of the National Committee for Quality Assurance.
The plans can help workers cover their high deductibles, but the policies also have limitations.
Even savvy consumers stumble over terms like “coinsurance.â€
The health law waived Medicare’s Part B deductible and dropped the 20 percent copayment for the preventive tests.
Two physician groups say the government’s regulations for out-of-network emergency care payments will cost consumers more because insurers will pay less.
Some medicines, particularly intravenous treatments, are not listed in plans’ pharmacy benefit section and, therefore, it’s difficult to confirm coverage specifics.
The group ColoradoCareYES gathered enough signatures — more than 100,000 — to put a single-payer health system on the ballot next fall. But the price tag is a worry to some.
A tough diagnosis and a high-deductible insurance plan motivated one couple to shop carefully for care. But they hit a snag -- inaccurate prices on online calculators. Who can comparison shop if the price tags are wrong?
The advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society said Wednesday that federal and state governments should move to restrict insurers from charging patients a percentage of the cost of their prescription drugs.
KHN’s consumer columnist answers readers’ questions about high deductible plans, out of network benefits and increases in premium costs.
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