Health Insurance

As the new year quickly approaches many companies large and small will begin to develop their search engine optimization strategies for next year. Those who have already built their team will likely restructure just to stay competitive, and those who have not yet solved this immensely important marketing challenge will get ready to finally dive in. Regardless of which your company may be, one thing is clear: visibility in search is a must-have in-order to survive and be successful. Now, more tha

Acute care hospitals in Pennsylvania want Congress to examine ambulatory surgery centers as a target for reimbursement cuts or other revenue measures. The hospitals believe that a review by the "super committee" charged with balancing the budget will show that ASCs are cherry picking lucrative commercially insured patients and shirking care for lower-paying Medicare, Medicaid and indigent care. "We are asking the super committee to understand that hospitals nationwide have a $155 billion in cut

Pennsylvania has always played a critical role in American history, from our nation's founding to the present day. Economically, our state has stood firm and steady during good times and bad, thanks in large part to the men and women here who operate their own businesses and contribute significantly to the state's economy. Were it not for our small-business owners, the Pennsylvania unemployment rate would be considerably higher and the future even murkier. Unfortunately, even though our state

The cost of providing health insurance to small businesses in New York will likely go up again in 2012, with hikes ranging from 5% to 15%. Based on filings with the New York State Department of Insurance (now part of the Department of Financial Services) and predictions from brokers and business owners, the rate hikes will be less dramatic than those of recent years. For firms with fewer than 50 employees, the cost of providing coverage in the New York/New Jersey/Pennsylvania metropolitan area

Health insurance companies appear to be ratcheting up premiums to pad their profits before more elements of the federal health-care reform kick in. That's the unavoidable takeaway from the latest report showing skyrocketing increases in health insurance costs this year. Even with high joblessness and fewer people rushing to the doctor amid a still-ailing economy, average family premiums rose by a staggering 9 percent. Insurers say they simply overshot the mark in estimating how quickly the ec

Household income — in Washington state and across the country — declined in 2010, while the percentage of people living in poverty increased, as did the numbers of people without health insurance, according to data being released Thursday by the Census Bureau. Results from the American Community Survey, successor to the census long form, detail a troubled economy, showing a downward trend that began in 2008 or earlier has continued or worsened in many larger cities and counties. Children have

General priorities of the plan include improving access to health care, preventing and controlling chronic and infectious diseases, and expanding access to reproductive and post-natal care. Obesity is among the problems the plan hopes to address, Fran Preneta, a county health department consultant, told the council Tuesday. Requiring restaurants to provide nutritional information for items on their menus and offering incentives such as tax credits to supermarkets that lower prices on healthy fo

A broad coalition representing most stakeholders in the U.S. health care system launched a nonprofit group Sept. 14 to enroll tens of millions of people in health insurance by 2014, when insurance exchanges are to open in all states and major health care reform law changes will take effect. Forty-three organizations are participating in the group, Enroll America, including hospitals, health insurance companies, and pharmaceutical companies, as well as groups representing physicians, nurses, com

Health care and health insurance seems to be more and more in the spotlight in today's political landscape. According to the Virginia Pilot, Americans spend 17% of our economic production on medical care each year. This is more than any other nation in the world, and the money we spend on medical care is taking away from our ability to compete with many foreign nations that include medical care as a right of citizenship. Prescription medicine is a huge part of the problem. While all recognize t

The constitutional clash over President Obama's national health care law moved closer to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, when the administration and Republican state attorneys separately asked the justices to hand down a verdict early next year.