By MATTHEW HOLT To join in the fun I am having with Blue Shield of California & Brown & Toland Physicians IPA being unable to tell me why I have a $34.94 bill for lab work (see image) that should either be covered as preventable under the ACA, or have co-pay of $50 (see image…
In southern Colorado’s San Luis Valley, clouds billow above the towering mountains of the Sangre de Cristo range. A chorus of blackbirds whistle as they flit among the reeds of a wildlife refuge. Big, circular fields of crops, interspersed with native shrubs, give it a feel of bucolic quiet. But amid the stark beauty in…
When a New York couple purchased a health insurance plan from a telemarketer, they thought it covered everything they wanted: doctor visits, tests, and medicine. But then came the unexpected bills for thousands of dollars, forcing them to skip crucial medical care. In their series “Health Care Hustlers,” Bloomberg reporters Zachary Mider and Zeke Faux…
Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters discusses rising Workers Comp cost in California: Of particular interest is the growing prevalence of unlisted codes in physical medicine (PM). Last year saw a huge jump in PM services coded as 97799 – “unlisted physical medicine”. Note that jump happened while the use of normal/traditional/common PM codes for…
By KIM BELLARD I have to admit, I’ve steered away from writing about AI lately. There’s just so much going on, so fast, that I can’t keep up. Don’t ask me how GPT-5 differs from GPT-4, or what Gemini does versus Genie 3. I know Microsoft really, really wants me to use Copilot, but so…
People thinking about starting a business or retiring early — before they’re old enough for Medicare — may want to wait until November, when they can see just how much their Affordable Care Act health insurance will cost next year. Sharp increases are expected. Premiums for ACA health plans, also known as Obamacare, which many…
EKALAKA, Mont. — There was no doctor on-site when a patient arrived in early June at the emergency room in the small hospital at the intersection of two dirt roads in this town of 400 residents. There never is. Dahl Memorial’s three-bed emergency department — a two-hour drive from the closest hospital with more advanced…
By MATTHEW HOLT I moved over something I wrote on linkedin, so that it doesn’t vanish. I do this type of thing so you don’t have to & to make Brett Jansen happy I am writing in one line paragraphs. My question, is how doo LabCorp, Brown & Toland and Blue Shield Of California come…
Se suponía que iba a ser más fácil. Cuando la Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (ACA) se aprobó en marzo de 2010, el objetivo era ayudar a que más personas en el país obtuvieran seguro médico. Y, de hecho, la creación de mercados en línea y la ampliación de los criterios de…
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workers whose jobs have been reinstated after dizzying Trump administration disruptions say they remain stuck in a budgetary, political, and professional limbo. Their work includes major agency priorities such as HIV testing and monitoring, as well as work at the nation’s leading sexually transmitted infections lab. And while employees…