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How Would Accountable Care Organizations Improve Healthcare?

admin — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 12:51:52 +0000

Accountable Care Organizations are set to get underway in early 2012. Many doctors and hospitals are already publicizing their plans to participate in an ACO. Now is the time to look into how ACOs will benefit the healthcare industry.

ACOs are an organization of doctors and hospitals that shares responsibility for working collaboratively providing healthcare to patients that works better and is more affordable than the current system. Conventionally, Medicare has paid healthcare providers based on the tests and services they provide a patient. This has, at times, led to unnecessary medical treatments and a more “doctor-centered” healthcare environment.

Accountable Care Organizations seek to improve upon that by offering incentives to healthcare providers when costs are kept at minimum, while still maintaining a high level of quality care. The focus turns to the patient and preventive healthcare and overall wellness. A standard of quality metrics will be put in place to help measure the success of ACOs. The metrics will likely be based on care coordination, safety, preventative health, and patient care experiences. The proposed rules also include strong protections to ensure patients do not have their care choices limited by an ACO.

There are those in the healthcare industry that are apprehensive about the new ACOs. The concern is that all the integration required to make ACOs work would limit the independent hospitals and providers who help keep insurance costs down by minimizing market share of larger groups. In the end, only time will tell how well the emerging concept of ACOs will improve healthcare.

Health Insurance Basics

admin — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 00:40:27 +0000

Small Business Health Insurance Basics

How does one find the best small business health insurance? What are the qualifications for group health insurance? In order to qualify for small or group business insurance in most states you must be a part of a company that has between 2 and 50 employees.

Conditions
Each employee must meet certain conditions before they can be added. For instance for the entire company to receive health insurance, two of the employees (one of which can be the owner)must work for at least 6 months out of the year and 20 hours per week. The business license must reflect an owner that actually draws wages from the company.

Insurance Providers
The following health insurance companies provide small business health insurance policies in many states across the US:

Aetna

Assurant Health

Blue Cross Blue Shield

Golden Rule

Celtic

Fairmont Specialty Group

United Healthcare

Vista

Coverage
Via medical networks, small businesses can offer their employees HMO, PPO, POS plans and Health Savings Accounts. Each plan carries its own pros and cons. HMO’s tend to be the least expensive but are more restrictive when it comes to choice of doctors. PPO’s and POS’s tend to be more expensive but offer employees a wider selection of doctors. Health Savings Accounts allow for tax free savings for yourself and your employees.

Quotes
Everyone understands that getting a car insurance comparison is important as is comparing homeowners insurance quotes but health insurance is something that is often overlooked. Compare quotes on health insurance to find the best deal and you might just find yourself saving a lot of money.

Staying Healthy During the Flu Season

admin — Tue, 17 May 2011 14:01:30 +0000

Many families are worried about their health this upcoming flu season because of H1N1 influenza. Even though H1N1 has not been proven to be more dangerous than the ordinary flu, it is important to be cautious and knowledgeable about the subject. Precautions like sneezing into a tissue, shoulder or sleeve instead of your hands, should be taken.

It is also important to wash hands with warm water and soap and avoid contact with your mouth, eyes and nose.

For children’s health it is important to get the H1N1 flu vaccine along with the seasonal flu vaccine. Doctors recommend pregnant women, people who have children younger than 6 months of age, people between the ages of 6 to 24, people with chronic health conditions and health care personnel to get the vaccination as well.

Symptoms of H1N1 include: fever, cough, sore throat, diarrhea, headache, chills, fatigue, and/or vomiting. The H1N1 flu has been known to last between 7 to 14 days. It is important to stay at home and to keep children at home if any flu like symptoms develops.

Children without chronic health conditions can usually recuperate from the disease without medical attention. The contagious period lasts from the day before symptoms are seen until 5 to 7 days after flu like symptoms begin. When treating the flu, one should drink plenty of liquids to remain hydrated, stay in bed and get plenty of rest, take ibuprofen and talk to his/her doctor.

6 Basic Mistakes that One Should Avoid while Buying Health Insurance

admin — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 14:52:07 +0000

Most of the people commit mistakes while buying a health insurance policy. This prevents them from obtaining desired health insurance benefits. Let us know about 6 common health insurance mistakes that you should avoid.

Mistakes that one should avoid

The 6 mistakes that you should avoid while buying a health insurance policy are given below:

Trusting the word of insurance agent without question: You should not believe each and every word of the health insurance agent. These agents get commission for selling insurance policies from the insurance company. These agents often hide facts in order to meet their targets and deadlines.
Buying health insurance with excess of limitations or exclusions: Most people don’t look at the list of exclusions and limitations while buying a health insurance policy. You should read the list carefully so that you can know what exactly your health insurance will not cover. Some insurance policies may not have any coverage for sickness.
Purchasing the cheapest health insurance policy: Most of the people buy cheapest health insurance policy without checking coverage. They are more concerned about saving money. But what they forget that there is no advantage in taking a health insurance policy which does not provide basic coverage. Most of the cheap insurance policies don’t provide comprehensive coverage.
Purchasing health insurance from financially weak insurers: You should check the financial health of the insurance company. The reason is if the financial health of the insurance company is weak then the company will not be able to provide any coverage at the time of time. Therefore, you should buy health insurance from financially strong insurance company.
Purchasing health insurance without reading the contract well: You should read the contract in detail so that you can know the pros and cons of the health insurance policy. You should read the clauses and their full implications in detail. After going through the health insurance contract, if you feel that the deal is bad, then you should back out of it.
Not shopping around: You should shop around before buying a health insurance policy. The reason is if you don’t shop around, then you will not have an idea about different insurance quotes and may end up paying more premium while getting less coverage. You should compare the health insurance quotes offered by different insurance companies. You can even work with an independent insurance agent who is associated with various health insurance companies.

You can save thousands of dollars if you avoid these common health insurance mistakes.