Author : Entries by gchen

Accountable care organizations, introduced as part of the Affordable Care Act last year, were not originally met with much support by health care providers. However, in an effort to curb costs and provide more affordable health plan options to patients, the idea of accountable care organizations is slowly gaining steam across the country. Administrators and providers nationwide are creating these groups because they are beginning to realize that accountable care will be the only possible way to remain profitable in ...

The governor of Kansas, Sam Brownback, has rejected a $31.5 million grant to support the implementation of an affordable health insurance exchange for the state. The money was originally awarded based on merit, as Kansas and six other states were applauded as innovators of their health exchange plans. These health exchanges would allow residents of the state to compare health insurance companies in order to find the most affordable health plans for their needs.

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The Affordable Care Act signed into law by President Obama last year required individual health plans to cover a wide range of preventative care for their members. However, preventative care for women did not include many important services like birth control – until recently. This month, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a mandate that government-approved birth control methods will now be covered by affordable health plans. However, the decision does not come without a degree of controversy from ...

Childhood obesity rates have reached epidemic proportions in the United States, with the number of obese children between the ages of 6 and 11 tripling within the last decade. Obesity is not just a problem for the young either – currently, 35 percent of adults over the age of 50 lead sedentary lifestyles, and obesity-related conditions like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease are skyrocketing among adults nationwide. In addition to the health toll obesity has taken on the American population ...

As many as 80 percent of patients in the United States may not take their medications as prescribed, according to a recent Aetna news release. With 125,000 of those patients dying annually from lack of proper adherence to medication, Aetna has teamed up with a number of other health care professionals to find solutions to this significant health problem. The individual health insurance company hosted a medication adherence summit to discuss issues related to lack of medication adherence and ...

Rural residents of this country tend to have a higher incidence of chronic conditions like diabetes, face more challenges in gaining access to quality health care and affordable health insurance, and are more likely to go into state-run individual health insurance plans when coverage is expanded in 2014. These results were the highlights of a recent paper released by UnitedHealth Center for Health Reform and Modernization, a branch of UnitedHealth Group. The paper is titled, “Modernizing Rural Health Care: Coverage ...

The Affordable Care Act has set a deadline for states to get local exchanges up and running or default to an exchange run by the federal government. In an effort to make the deadline, many states are in the planning stage to determine the best approach to providing residents an easy way to compare health insurance companies and find affordable health plans for their families. Meetings and fact-gathering sessions are underway in many areas, including New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania ...

Patient care coordination has become a core component to raising the bar on the standard of health care in this country. To that end, Coventry Health Care is bringing members of its individual health insurance company one more tool in the ability to collaborate on patient care across many mediums. By selecting Landacorp to partner with them in this purpose, Coventry has selected a technology company that is fully equipped to provide full range of collaborative services to everyone who ...

The maze of individual health insurance companies can be a complex one to navigate, with foreign terminology and facts that are difficult to comprehend if you don’t actually work in the health insurance business. For those trying to shop for affordable health insurance, the problem of technical jargon and complicated terms can make it nearly impossible to determine which plan is the best one for their needs. To help consumers become savvy shoppers in the new health insurance marketplace ...