[…] The changes will go into effect on July 1, 2009 and will require all Colorado health insurance providers to cover preventive colon cancer screening for policy holders over the age of 50, and screening for younger policy holders who are considered at high risk for colon cancer. The legislation pertains to both individual and group health insurance policies. […]
health insurance
Medical Home Pilot Program
[…] I’m curious to see what the outcome is for the IBM/United medical home pilot program. We work with United Healthcare here in Colorado, and are eager to see if United can come up with a program that would ultimately lead to lower healthcare costs (and thus lower health insurance premiums). If the pilot is successful, I imagine we’ll see other health insurance companies implementing similar medical home programs.
Same Sex Domestic Partner Coverage From Anthem
We’re pleased to report that Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield is now offering same sex domestic partner coverage on individual health insurance policies in Colorado. Many large group plans have been offering coverage for same sex domestic partners for a while now, but this hasn’t been the case in the individual health insurance market. […]
Expanding Health Insurance Coverage In Colorado
[…] Increasing the income limits and enrolling more people doesn’t require additional infrastructure or administrative changes. Working within our current framework, but with expanded enrollment, seems to be an efficient way of going about this process. It’s also probably the quickest way to actually get health insurance coverage to Colorado residents who need it.
New Ideas In Healthcare Cost Management
[…] spreading healthcare costs over a large population doesn’t do anything to lower the actual cost of healthcare, and might be seen as putting a layer of paint on a crumbling wall. I’m not quite as quick to discount this idea, although I agree with Jaan that more needs to be done than simply increase the number of people paying into the health insurance system.
Some Thoughts On Colorado HB1224
[…] I looked at premiums for $5,000 deductible HSA qualified policies from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Aetna, Assurant, Cigna, Humana, and United HealthOne. If lawmakers disallow the use of gender to determine individual health insurance premiums in Colorado, younger women and older men will have lower premiums, while younger men and older women will have higher premiums. There won’t be any actual benefit to the overall population – health insurance premiums will just be averaged for men and women.
Audits For Medicare Providers
[…] most doctors are trying to provide the best possible care for their patients and simply get paid for what they do. Medical billing is fraught with complications and headaches. To eliminate mistakes, it seems that making the billing system less complicated would be a better solution than audits. […]
Stimulus Aims To Help Laid Off Workers Retain Health Insurance
[…] The number of Americans without health insurance is already way too high. And since most people get their health insurance from an employer, the rising unemployment numbers were sure to drive the number of uninsureds higher. Hopefully the stimulus bill will help to mitigate the problem for at least the rest of this year.
Government Research And Health Care
[…] There are plenty of people who advocate a free market approach to health care, and are complaining that the government shouldn’t be allowed to dictate that a particular treatment isn’t cost effective. But private health insurance does exactly the same thing. They don’t pay for unproven treatments, and it wouldn’t make sense for them to do otherwise […]
Anthem Blue Cross Donates $1.6 Million In Colorado
The Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation and Anthem employees donated $1.6 million in 2008 to a wide range of organizations dedicated to improving health and wellness in Colorado. One of the recipients was the Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved, an organization that advocates for people in Colorado who are without health insurance. […]
COBRA Only Helps If You Can Afford It
[…] Most people just can’t afford COBRA premiums. In Colorado, unemployment hit 6.1% in December. I’ve seen conflicting reports about the stimulus bill and whether the final version will contain relief for unemployed Americans struggling to pay for health insurance. Without it, the number of uninsureds will likely be higher this year than ever before.
HB 1256 Not Really A Benefit To Consumers
[…] The Colorado Insurance Commissioner regulates the health insurance market in Colorado to make it as beneficial as possible for consumers. Opening the health insurance market to allow for out of state plans to be sold here in Colorado would mean that consumers might end up with lower quality health insurance products, regulated by another state’s rules. […]
Daschle And Health Care Reform
[…] The millions of Americans who lack any type of health insurance and the ever-increasing cost of health care are issues that must be addressed. And unfortunately they’re going to have to be addressed during a time when money is squeaky tight. I imagine partisan politics and lack of money will be a far bigger hurdle for health care reform than Daschle’s withdrawl.
Tough Times For Health Care Reform
[…] everywhere I look these days, the outlook seems pretty bleak. I wonder how many of the optimistic ideas that were tossed about during last year’s campaign will be scrapped for the time being. Hopefully the people who don’t have health insurance (and all the people who are at risk of joining them) will not become a forgotten minority.
The Real Price Of Brand Name Prescription Meds
[…] If a rep presents a new med to a doctor, mentions that it’s a whiz-bang drug, and brushes the cost off by saying something like “it’s a brand name drug, but the copays on brand names are usually only about 20 bucks more than generics” the fact that the drug actually costs more per month than most car payments will probably not factor into the doctor’s prescribing decisions. […]
Salaries For Healthcare Executives
[…] With other private industries, we have more of a choice in terms of quality, price, and whether we want the product in the first place. Somehow it doesn’t feel right that healthcare is set up just like all of our other industries, with executives making 7 and 8 figure salaries while millions of Americans are without health insurance and don’t have realistic access to healthcare at all.
Customary Charges Are Not Always Reasonable
[…] Pricing varies from one provider to the next; negotiated reimbursement rates vary within a single health insurance network; patients often don’t know what the price will be until after the fact. And as David Williams pointed out, the prices are often far from reasonable. We can’t do without healthcare, and that’s why unreasonable “reasonable and customary” charges exist.
Health Insurance And Clinical Trials
Diane Primavera, our local Colorado state representative from Broomfield, has proposed a bill that would prevent health insurance companies from canceling policies of insureds who choose to enroll in clinical trials of experimental treatments. We appreciate Primavera’s healthcare reform efforts for Colorado. […]
Health Insurance More Important For Humans Than Pets
[…] But before any state starts mandating that shelters and pet stores provide pet insurance information to customers, we should probably focus on making sure that people know how to qualify for Medicaid and SCHIP, and are automatically provided with information about eligibility for human health insurance.
Health Insurance And Infertility Treatment
[…] One of the benefits of health insurance is the negotiated fee schedules between providers and health insurance carriers. When claims are considered “covered expenses” the billed amount is almost always reduced by the insurance company. Unfortunately, infertility treatments aren’t covered expenses and don’t get repriced by health insurance networks. […]
Different Perspectives
[…] Sometimes we need to be reminded that not everyone is aware of the actual cost of health insurance or health care. To us, reform that lowers costs across the board is a very important issue. But with such huge discrepancies in what people are paying for their health insurance, we’re not even in the same book yet, say nothing of on the same page.
Non-Profit Does Not Necessarily Mean Low Cost
I recently posted an article on the Colorado Health Insurance Insider about my views on making Medicare available as an opt-in option for Americans younger than 65. I got a comment on the article that I thought brought up some good points and wanted to expand on some of the ideas. The reader pointed out that a good number of private health insurance plans are non-profit […]
No Blackball List In Health Insurance
Several times each week, we talk to clients in Colorado who have been declined by a health insurance carrier in the past. Quite often they express concern about the “black mark” on their record, and wonder if they will ever be able to qualify for a medically underwritten policy. So I thought I’d clear up some of the most common misconceptions about individual health insurance underwriting and previous declines. […]
Public Health Insurance Plan Deserves A Chance
[…] I like the idea of a public health insurance system operating side by side with our private system. I think that there are people who would immediately opt for one or other system just on principal. But I think that there are lots of people who would wait and see what happens. Either way, the idea of a public/private health insurance system deserves a chance.
Heart Attacks Down But Tobacco Tax Revenue Dwindling
[…] I’m thrilled that the Pueblo smoking ban has yielded such positive effects on the health of the population, and I’m glad that the rest of the state followed suit a few years later. Now let’s hope that the state can figure out the funding for programs like Medicaid and SCHIP – both of which provide health insurance to Colorado populations that desperately need it – despite dwindling tobacco sales.