The American health-care system has a unique problem with paperwork. The sheer number of participants -- doctors, hospitals, clinics, insurance companies, patients -- makes settling payments complicated, time-consuming and really expensive. The share of U.S. health-care spending devoted to administrative costs, including billing, is roughly three times what it is in other affluent countries, and it's a major reason the U.S. spends twice as much on health care.Some health clinics employ more clerks than care providers -- not just to generate invoices but to send along the patient information insurers need to approve treatments, to dispute insurer decisions denying payment, to fix mistakes, to handle patients' questions, and on and on. For every $1 billion in revenue, the health-care system employs the equivalent of 770 full-time people to settle the bills. That's almost eight times more than other industries. And doctors have to spend inordinate time dealing with red tape.Of course, if … [Read more...] about U.S. Health Care Is Tied Up in Red Tape
Health
Amazon Is Already Reshaping Health Care
Without having done much yet, Amazon.com Inc. is already transforming U.S. health care -- and not necessarily for the better. The mere threat of the online giant getting into the health business prompted the country's two largest pharmacy benefit managers -- CVS Health Corp. and Express Scripts Holding Co. -- to join forces with two of its largest insurers, Aetna Inc. and Cigna Corp. These deals will put more U.S. health care under the control of fewer companies. The merging companies say this will lower costs for consumers and the country. But the reality will likely be less rosy and more complicated.That these companies can even make such deals is due partly to the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice, which blocked the mergers of Anthem Inc. with Cigna and Aetna with Humana Inc. Those mega-insurers would have been too busy digesting to make big vertical deals and too large to be acquired by other insurers.UnitedHealth Group Inc. has been another … [Read more...] about Amazon Is Already Reshaping Health Care
Why Thousands of Americans Are Risking It and Skipping Health Insurance
In tiny Marion, North Carolina, the Buchanans decided that $1,800 a month was too much to pay for health insurance, and are going without it for the first time in their lives.In Harahan, one bend of the Mississippi River up from New Orleans, the Owenses looked at their doubling insurance premiums and decided no, as well. “We’re not poor people but we can’t afford health insurance,” Mimi Owens said.And in a Phoenix suburb, the Bobbies and their son Joey will go uninsured so the family can save money to cover their nine-year-old daughter Sophia, who was born with five heart defects.Across America there are thousands of people like the Buchanans, the Owenses and the Bobbies making the same hard decision to go without health insurance, despite the benefits. They’re risking it—betting that they’ve got enough savings, enough of a back-up plan, or enough luck to get them through a twisted knee, a cancer, or a car wreck.Bloomberg is following a dozen … [Read more...] about Why Thousands of Americans Are Risking It and Skipping Health Insurance
Health-Insurance Premiums Loom as Election Issue
Health-insurance premiums are likely to jump right before the November elections, a result of Congress’s omission of federal money to shore up insurance exchanges from its new spending package. Lawmakers from both parties had pushed to include the funding in the $1.3 trillion spending law signed Friday, but they couldn’t agree on details. A battle has already begun over how to cast the blame for the expected rate increases. Democrats... … [Read more...] about Health-Insurance Premiums Loom as Election Issue
Israel to Invest $275 Million in Digital Health Project
Israel approved a plan to invest 1 billion shekels ($275 million) to digitize the personal health records of its nearly 9 million citizens to help develop new drugs.The government, in partnership with German software giant SAP SE, will gather information from Israeli volunteers and create a database for academics and foreign health care companies to use in the development of preventive medicines and personalized care, according to an emailed statement from the prime minister’s office on Sunday.Israeli doctors have been documenting patient data on digital platforms for years, and can now examine clinical data on more than 98 percent of the population, the statement said.The Israeli database “is a huge asset and we want to give it to researchers, developers and companies,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in the statement. “The interest of global companies is tremendous. I’ve already met many of them and they all want to come here.”New … [Read more...] about Israel to Invest $275 Million in Digital Health Project