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…
family health insurance
“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…
Physician Contracting 101 – Rickard & Associates
Physician contracts are often complicated and have unique terms. We help our clients understand the terms and negotiate their contracts.
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Many of our clients are physicians who are negotiating or renegotiating their employment contracts with their employers. Sometimes these are with health systems, hospitals, or small physician offices.
We also have clients come to us with issues after they negotiated their own contracts.
Physician contracts are unique, as they have standard…