Sally C. Pipes
Commentary
Still plagued by scandal, VA needs market reforms
The Department of Veterans Affairs just got another black eye — this time from its own internal auditor. The VA’s inspector general reported earlier this month that the applications of nearly 900,000 veterans for health care were still “pending.” The agency’s record-keeping is so bad that one-third of those applicants ...
Commentary
Is the VA Getting Any Better?
The Department of Veterans Affairs just got another black eye — this time from its own internal auditor. Last week, the VA’s Inspector General reported that the applications of nearly 900,000 veterans for health care were still “pending.” The agency’s record-keeping is so bad that one-third of those applicants may, ...
Commentary
Mega-Merger Madness
The health insurance industry is undergoing breathtaking consolidation. Industry giant Anthem recently struck a $54 billion deal to buy rival Cigna. If approved, the merger would create the largest insurance company in the United States, serving more than 53 million Americans. The deal comes after Aetna announced it would buy ...
Commentary
Walker Trumps the GOP Presidential Field in Healthcare Reform
Donald Trump may lead the Republican presidential candidates in the polls today. But he doesn’t lead the pack in ideas for how to replace Obamacare. At the recent GOP debate, Trump said he believed in single-payer healthcare. “It works in Canada. It works incredibly well in Scotland.” The business mogul ...
Commentary
Four Healthcare Questions for the GOP Presidential Contenders
The U.S. healthcare system is a mess. Premiums and deductibles are soaring. Consumers have fewer choices when it comes to doctors and hospitals. And the United States could be short 90,000 physicians within a decade. Voters want to know how the next president will reverse these trends. Yet the 24 ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s Bad Blast from the Past
The ’90s are calling. They want their health policy back. Remember health maintenance organizations? HMOs were meant to replace the old fee-for-service model, which supposedly encourages doctors to overtreat patients. The new entities would pay doctors a flat fee for keeping patients healthy. Primary care physicians would coordinate care across ...
Commentary
These GOP Plans Are Antidote For ObamaCare’s Ills
The next Republican presidential debate is just two weeks away. Health care reform will no doubt be front and center, thanks in large part to the release of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s alternative to ObamaCare. Pundits have called Walker’s plan the first “serious” health reform plan from the crowd of ...
Commentary
Bungled bundling of hospital payments for joint replacements
Federal officials are about to make orthopedic surgery a lot more painful. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services soon may order hospitals in 75 metropolitan regions to change the way they pay health care providers for knee and hip replacements for seniors on Medicare. Instead of paying for each ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s Cadillac Tax Is A Clunker
Consumers are trying to figure out how they’ll absorb the double-digit increases in health insurance premiums that many insurers have announced for next year. American employers, meanwhile, are worried about what will happen to health costs several years out, in 2018. That’s because 2018 is when one of Obamacare’s most ...
Commentary
Obamacare’s latest trend: sticker shock
Americans rank health costs as their top financial concern, according to Gallup. That’s not likely to change anytime soon. Health insurers are requesting massive premium hikes for next year — some in excess of 50 percent. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Affordable Care Act has been driving up ...
Still plagued by scandal, VA needs market reforms
The Department of Veterans Affairs just got another black eye — this time from its own internal auditor. The VA’s inspector general reported earlier this month that the applications of nearly 900,000 veterans for health care were still “pending.” The agency’s record-keeping is so bad that one-third of those applicants ...
Is the VA Getting Any Better?
The Department of Veterans Affairs just got another black eye — this time from its own internal auditor. Last week, the VA’s Inspector General reported that the applications of nearly 900,000 veterans for health care were still “pending.” The agency’s record-keeping is so bad that one-third of those applicants may, ...
Mega-Merger Madness
The health insurance industry is undergoing breathtaking consolidation. Industry giant Anthem recently struck a $54 billion deal to buy rival Cigna. If approved, the merger would create the largest insurance company in the United States, serving more than 53 million Americans. The deal comes after Aetna announced it would buy ...
Walker Trumps the GOP Presidential Field in Healthcare Reform
Donald Trump may lead the Republican presidential candidates in the polls today. But he doesn’t lead the pack in ideas for how to replace Obamacare. At the recent GOP debate, Trump said he believed in single-payer healthcare. “It works in Canada. It works incredibly well in Scotland.” The business mogul ...
Four Healthcare Questions for the GOP Presidential Contenders
The U.S. healthcare system is a mess. Premiums and deductibles are soaring. Consumers have fewer choices when it comes to doctors and hospitals. And the United States could be short 90,000 physicians within a decade. Voters want to know how the next president will reverse these trends. Yet the 24 ...
Obamacare’s Bad Blast from the Past
The ’90s are calling. They want their health policy back. Remember health maintenance organizations? HMOs were meant to replace the old fee-for-service model, which supposedly encourages doctors to overtreat patients. The new entities would pay doctors a flat fee for keeping patients healthy. Primary care physicians would coordinate care across ...
These GOP Plans Are Antidote For ObamaCare’s Ills
The next Republican presidential debate is just two weeks away. Health care reform will no doubt be front and center, thanks in large part to the release of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s alternative to ObamaCare. Pundits have called Walker’s plan the first “serious” health reform plan from the crowd of ...
Bungled bundling of hospital payments for joint replacements
Federal officials are about to make orthopedic surgery a lot more painful. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services soon may order hospitals in 75 metropolitan regions to change the way they pay health care providers for knee and hip replacements for seniors on Medicare. Instead of paying for each ...
Obamacare’s Cadillac Tax Is A Clunker
Consumers are trying to figure out how they’ll absorb the double-digit increases in health insurance premiums that many insurers have announced for next year. American employers, meanwhile, are worried about what will happen to health costs several years out, in 2018. That’s because 2018 is when one of Obamacare’s most ...
Obamacare’s latest trend: sticker shock
Americans rank health costs as their top financial concern, according to Gallup. That’s not likely to change anytime soon. Health insurers are requesting massive premium hikes for next year — some in excess of 50 percent. This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Affordable Care Act has been driving up ...
