Commercial insurers follow Medicare’s lead regarding ‘no payment’ for medical errors
Most commercial insurers follow the lead of Medicare and Medicaid. In this week’s news stories, we see major health insurers Aetna and WellPoint announcing that they will not reimburse hospitals for care resulting from serious errors, such as leaving an instrument in a patient after surgery, performing erroneous surgical procedures and using contaminated devices. The move, which is in line with Medicare’s decision to stop coverage for preventable hospital errors, is part of the companies’ bid to improve patient safety and cut healthcare costs. Click here for more.
ER wait-times increasing
A new Health Affairs study showed emergency room patients waited 30 minutes or more for a doctor in 2004, up from 22 minutes in 1997. This trend is attributed to an aging population, nurse and doctor shortages, a lack of funding, and the growing number of nonemergency patients seeking care in the ER. Click here for more.
Too few young women take folic acid supplements
If you are in a wellness program for new mothers, this story should come as important news to you. Reuters reported that new research from the CDC shows that 40 percent of women aged 18 to 45 said they took folic acid supplements last year, compared to 28 percent in 1995. However, only about 30 percent of women aged 18 to 24 reported taking the supplements, which concerned health officials because these women have the highest rate of unintended pregnancies and comprise about one-third of all births in the country. Click here for more.
Insurance providers launch pilot program of medical home
The Medical Home Concept is in the news a lot these days. Take time to read this story explaining the concepts behind Group Health and Health Plan of New York’s plan to launch the Medical Home High Value Network, which allows patients to connect to providers and clinical-decision support tools electronically. The success of the model will be measured through data from claims and quality-performance measures, care outcomes, efficiency measures and patient satisfaction scores. Click here for more.
