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Obama’s plan is to extend health insurance to more Americans and control medical bills.
"We aim to get to universal coverage," administration budget aide Keith Fontenot said in The Washington Post. Obama is "open to any ideas people want to put forward. He wants to work openly with the Congress in a very inclusive process."
Patients with cancer undergo many expensive treatments and tests and often find themselves bankrupt even if they have insurance, according to a new report.
The report, released by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the American Cancer Society followed 20 typical cancer patients. Of those patients, nine had insurance through an employer, one paid for employer coverage through COBRA, seven had individual insurance, two received coverage through a state high-risk insurance pool, and one became uninsured.
The study found that many of the patients became too sick to work, but were able to remain covered by their employer’s insurance up to 18 months by paying the full premium, although they found the added expense hard to bear. Other patients experienced delays in treatment caused by funding problems, debt, and stress about costs.
It does not pay enough money.
That is the contention of Wellcare, Florida’s largest Medicaid insurer, which announced it is leaving the state’s Medicaid Reform program, The Miami Herald reported this week. Government reimbursement rates are just too low, the insurer said.
”WellCare’s action is a result of recent state budget cuts that make it economically unfeasible to continue offering members sufficient access to quality health services in those programs,” the company said in a written statement.
”It’s fair to say that the rate cuts are substantial enough that some plans will soon have to decide whether to stay,” said Michael Garner, president of the Florida Association of Health Plans, in The Herald.
A recent report by the Center for Studying Health System Change, a nonpartisan policy research organization, states that one in seven Americans under age 65 went without a prescription drug in 2007 because they could not afford it. The study shows the effect increased drug prices were having even before the economic recession went into full swing: in 2003, only one in 10 Americans said they couldn’t afford their prescriptions.
According to the study, people who were most likely to be unable to afford their prescriptions were uninsured and suffering from a chronic condition. Without their medications, their conditions were likely to worsen, causing them to seek expensive medical treatment.
However, in the recent survey, insured Americans were not immune to prescription pricing troubles. One in 10 Americans insured by their employer reported going without a prescription because of cost, also up from the last study in 2003.
Source: The New York Times
On December 30, 2008, a federal jury convicted Mehmood Patel, MD, of Lafayette, LA, on 51 counts of healthcare fraud, according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) press release.
During the period covered by the indictment, 1999-2003, Patel billed Medicare and private insurance companies more than $3 million and received more than $500,000. During that period Patel was the number one biller in cardiology services in Louisiana.
Patel faces a maximum of 10 years in prison and a fine not more than $250,000.
Frederic Feit, owner Modern Pain Therapy in Freehold, NJ, pleaded guilty to charges of third-degree theft by deception, according to a December 27 article in the Asbury Park Press.
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