health costs news from FierceHealthcare

While medical prices fell for the fourth consecutive year in 2007, observers say that health costs likely will shoot up again, soon. According to an article in the journal Health Affairs by author Read more...

A new report suggests that if the U.S. created a program designed to provide the right incentives and improve decision making, payers could save $368 billion on health costs over the next 10 years. Read more...

A Texas cancer center is considering what must be a difficult move: it's thinking about ceasing to offer cancer care to indigent and undocumented immigrants. The hospital, the University of Texas Read more...

A new study suggests that despite popular perceptions, illegal immigrants from Latin American countries are 50 percent less likely to use hospital emergency departments than U.S.-born Latinos, a Read more...

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) is an unabashed liberal with big hopes for reforming the state's healthcare system. When he was re-elected last year, he vowed to put forth a plan to cover the state's 900,000 uninsured residents. He soon realized, however, that unless he could help cut health costs, his proposed reforms would never work. He also realized that cutting costs would probably mean cutting income for healthcare industry stakeholders. Now officials are wondering whether he …

Read more...

In a debate that resonates across the U.S., leaders in Tarrant County, TX are discovering what the real cost would be if they permit illegal immigrants access to the county's indigent care program. This week, a consultant hired by the JPS Health Network board of managers told executives and officials that the cost would be $41.2 million a year, or about 10 percent of the hospital's current operating budget. For that amount, the hospital could see 29,000 new patients and would probably end …

Read more...

It could be the biggest healthcare cost hand-off in modern history, and a radical step for all concerned. General Motors and Ford have begun talks with the United Auto Workers union that would, if successful, see the union running a gigantic fund to pay for retiree healthcare costs. The deal would involve a huge one-time payment into the new UAW fund. The deal seems to be inspired by an agreement reached by tire manufacturer Goodyear, which recently passed off $1.2 billion of retiree …

Read more...

At a federal and state level, policymakers are beginning to agree on some bare bones requirements for universal healthcare access. Massachusetts' plan is an early trendsetter, though there's plenty of opportunity for other …

Read more...

By one school of thought, multimillionaire corporate executives have no business making healthcare decisions for the rank and file employees who report to them. After all, they live in a much different world, with generous policies of their own and sometimes, reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses, while employees with tiny incomes are facing steadily growing health costs. Some critics suggest that individual patients should have far more power in making health purchasing decisions …

Read more...

For providers, negotiating with managed care companies has always up there on the fun scale with, say, having a root canal done. But in recent times, observers say, the situation has gotten even worse, with negotiations getting up close, personal and even violent. When things get so bad that a Denver UnitedHealth executive's home gets vandalized during talks with HCA, HCA hospitals run scare-tactic ads warning patients that their health is in danger if Las Vegas's Sierra Health Services …

Read more...