Aside from whatever a visit to the doctor costs you in money, it also costs you in time. A lot of it.
End to end, the travel and waiting time for a doctor’s appointment can take several hours — often disrupting work or school. Only 17 percent of it — 20 minutes, on average — is spent actually seeing the doctor, according to a study by the University of Pittsburgh physician Kristin Ray and colleagues at the Harvard Medical School and the RAND Corporation. Continue reading
AMY MOSES and her circle of self-employed small-business owners were supporters of President Obama and the Affordable Care Act. They bought policies on the newly created New York State exchange. But when they called doctors and hospitals in Manhattan to schedule appointments, they were dismayed to be turned away again and again with a common refrain: “We don’t take Obamacare,” the umbrella epithet for the hundreds of plans offered through the president’s signature health legislation Continue reading
A federal agency on Monday released final rules on how employers can offer workers financial incentives of up to 30 percent of the cost of their cheapest health insurance plans to participate in wellness programs without violating federal laws protecting the confidentiality of medical information Continue reading
If patients know how much their medical care costs, they’ll shop around for the cheapest option — and over time, health care costs will go down. At least, that’s the idea behind the drive to improve price transparency, a strategy embraced by Donald Trump, among others. Continue reading
The federal agencies have finalized the new versions of the summary of benefits coverage (SBC) template. For all businesses, this template will be used starting for plan years beginning on or after April 1, 2017. Under the Affordable Care Act, group health plans and health insurance providers are now going to be required to provide a SBC to all plan participants during open enrollment for company benefit coverage. As per the Affordable Care Act, all businesses will now be required to provide additional information to their employees. Continue reading
As health care spending sky rockets, the buzz of implementing wellness programs is becoming louder. Employers want to control health care spending, see higher productivity rates, and increase employee satisfaction while struggling to find the right program. I’ve heard their statements many times “We are still trying to figure it out,” and “people are not engaged.” Continue reading
As of Jan. 1, 2016, Hulsey reminded the audience, employers of 50 or more full-time equivalent (FTE) employees are required to provide health insurance to at least 95% of their employees or face a penalty. One key issue for employers is that many federal government entities are auditing small businesses with little to no coordination… Continue reading
Many doctors’ offices are open only on weekdays and during business hours. This also happens to be when most adults work and when children attend school. A 2010 survey of 11 countries found that Americans seek out after-hours care or care in a hospital’s emergency room more often than citizens of almost any other industrialized nation. More than two-thirds of Americans with a below-average income did so. But this isn’t just a problem for the poor. About 55 percent of those with an above-average income did so as well. Continue reading
