A pair of major Massachusetts and New Hampshire health insurance companies are warning subscribers that a cybersecurity ransomware incident in March and April has compromised some members’ personal information.
Point32Health, the corporate parent of Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan, said in April that the threat impacted systems that are used to service customers, accounts, brokers, and providers, officials said. It proactively took certain systems offline to contain the threat out of an “abundance of caution” after “detecting an unauthorized party.”
“Unfortunately, the investigation identified signs that data was copied and taken from our Harvard Pilgrim systems from…
family health insurance
NC Senate budget revives Medicaid expansion debate, putting law in ‘conflict’ with House
The Senate budget unveiled Monday cuts state laws that regulate hospital competition, placing Medicaid expansion, and health coverage for thousands of low-income North Carolinaians, in conflict.
During last year’s Medicaid expansion negotiations, a key agreement between the House and the Senate was Certificate of Need laws, which limit where hospitals, clinics and other health care facilities can be built. The Senate wanted to pass expansion with Certificate of Need changes but the House did not.
But this year, there was a breakthrough, and in early March, the Senate and House announced that they had reached a compromise deal: Medicaid expansion…
Major Jon Mitchell presents over $500 million budget, urges health, pension cost reform
NEW BEDFORD – Mayor Jon Mitchell presented a city budget to the council Wednesday that topped half a billion dollars.
The totals: $513,169,319.
And by far the largest portion of that is the general fund, which comes in at $458,910,392.
It’s the general fund that includes schools, public safety, and city government.
It also includes health insurance, pensions, mandatory assessments and debt services.
Mitchell was optimistic about the city’s financial future while cautioning that new budget tactics are needed.
He said it’s time to stop “ignoring the elephant in the room” which is rising healthcare and pension costs.
“Over many…
assistive technology
Overview
Assistive technology enables people to live healthy, productive, independent, and diagnosed lives, and to participate in education, the labor market and civic life. Assistive technology reduces the need for formal health and support services, long-term care and the work of caregivers. Without assistive technology, people are often excluded, isolated, and locked into poverty, which increases the impact of disease and disability on a person, their family, and society.
Who can benefit from assistive technology?
People who most need assistive technology include:
people with disabilities
older people
people with non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and stroke
people with mental health…
State alleges Health Partners illegally denied mental health coverage, says the company is cooperating
Updated: 2:00 p.m
Minnesota officials hit Bloomington-based insurance and health care company Health Partners with a consent order for allegedly violating laws related to mental health parity.
State and federal laws prohibit health insurance companies from evaluating mental health diagnoses or treatments more stringently than they do for other forms of care.
“This is one example of our commitment to enforcing mental health parity laws and making sure that Minnesotans can get access to the coverage that they’ve paid for,” said Commerce Commissioner Grace Arnold. “We want to make sure that people have fewer barriers, and this is a way…
“High performance network” health care insurance plans to leave patients with unexpected medical debt
A Tennessee family faced a potentially catastrophic situation when Joe Smith — a husband and father of four — was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm. Smith, of Chattanooga, had health insurance through his job with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, but the insurance company refused to pay for the surgery necessary to prevent a life-threatening rupture.
“We knew that he kind of had this ticking time bomb in his head,” Stacie Smith, Joe’s wife, said.
The insurer claimed that the neurosurgeon that Smith’s family had chosen was out of the network, and the plan had no coverage for out-of-network…
US health insurance problems affect well-being of HAE patients: Survey | US insurance coverage delays, denials ’cause huge disruptions’ for HAE patients
Insurance issues significantly affected the physical, psychological, and financial health of people with hereditary angioedema (HAE) in the US, according to a recent patient survey.
Patients reported that health insurance delays and coverage denials led to more frequent HAE attacks, urgent care visits, missed work or school, and greater anxiety.
“Barriers to care due to insurance delays are well documented, but data is lacking for HAE patients,” Nonie S. Arora, MD, of the University of Michigan and the study’s corresponding author, said in a press release. “We set out to examine not only the impact those denials and delays had…
Integration of My Number and accelerating health insurance cards
With the government aiming to integrate health insurance cards into My Number cards in the fall of next year, medical institutions will be required in principle to accept My Number cards with health insurance functions starting this month.
However, concerns remain among medical and welfare workers who worry about the possibility of people who don’t own My Number cards having difficulty seeing a doctor, or issues related to handling the My Number cards of patients and welfare service users.
“If (health insurance cards are) integrated into My Number cards, the burden of safekeeping them will become incomparably tougher,” said an…