Maine consumer rep decries health insurance vote
Posted July 01, 2011, at 1:17 p.m.
Joe Ditre, executive director of Maine Consumers for Affordable Health Care and consumer representative to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, has joined other consumer representatives in expressing disappointment at a recent vote by an NAIC health insurance task force to omit broker and agent compensation from the calculation of medical loss ratio. The Affordable Care Act requires health insurers to spend at least 80 percent of their premium revenues on direct health care and quality improvement costs. In a statement issued Friday, Ditre and other consumer representatives say the task force recommendation would undermine the MLR regulation and cost consumers billions of dollars.
http://bangordailynews.com/2011/07/01/health/maine-consumer-rep-decries-health-insurance-vote/print/
Administration Offers Health Care Cuts as Part of Budget Negotiations
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials are offering to cut tens of billions of dollars fromMedicare and Medicaid in negotiations to reduce the federal budget deficit, but the depth of the cuts depends on whether Republicans are willing to accept any increases in tax revenues.
Administration officials and Republican negotiators say the money can be taken from health care providers like hospitals and nursing homes without directly imposing new costs on needy beneficiaries or radically restructuring either program.
Hospitals strive to remain on 'preferred list'
The State Employee Health Commission rates Maine institutions, encouraging improvements in quality.
When state employees or their family members have to go to a hospital in Portland, their health insurer wants them to go to Mercy.
The State Employee Health Commission doesn't just recommend the hospital, it waives the co-pays of $50 to $100 per day if the patient goes to Mercy. They can still choose to go to nearby Maine Medical Center, but it'll cost them.
http://www.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?expire=&title=Hospitals+strive+to+remain+on+%27preferred+list%27+%7C+The+Portland+Press+Herald+%2F+Maine+Sunday+Telegram&urlID=455985222&action=cpt&partnerID=561087&cid=124986804&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pressherald.com%2Fnews%2Fhospitals-strive-to-remain-on-preferred-list_2011-07-05.html
Will debt deal hurt health industry? | |
| Last year, health care industry groups gave President Barack Obama’s reform plan the support it needed to become law. Now, those same groups are sweating over what might happen in the debt ceiling talks — because their fortunes might be about to change. Critics of the reform often attack it as a collection of “backroom health care deals,” and Democrats did have an easier time passing it because powerful groups — like hospitals and the drug industry — endorsed the legislation, or at least agreed to hold their fire. Some of them did get rewarded for their help, by being spared from deeper cuts or other legislation they’ve opposed for years. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=C35F8CF7-CE52-4546-A25D-890FE2E7993B |
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