Health Law Likely to Add to Employer Costs

Employer health care costs will likely rise by 7-8% in 2011 due to the health care reform law enacted by Congress back in March. Employees may see a rise in deductibles and co-pays to offset this increase. According to Kiplinger.com, the anticipated savings will probably take five or more years to realize. That’s when insurance exchanges and other measures will start to take effect.

What’s making costs rise for employers? Covering kids until age 26 is a big contributing factor. The elimination of lifetime benefit caps and unforeseen bookkeeping problems also will not help. With older kids being covered now, companies might not be able to charge any surcharges by law, but more firms will get around that by charging more for say, a family of 6 than for a family of 4. Deductibles and co-pays may go up as well like I explained above, to help employers counterbalance the increased cost.

For the time being, many firms are considering these options as a way to save money:

• High quality medical providers—for example, employers sending heart patients to the Cleveland or Mayo clinic instead of unnecessary appointments.
• Setting up a “medical home” for each patient, especially the chronically ill. A physician’s office coordinates specialists, nursing homes and other providers and shares in any cost savings.
• Tiered co-pays of non drug treatments, based on cost effectiveness—acupuncture and exercise instead of back surgery for example.
• Clinics and telephone care. Firms too small for their own on-site clinic set up kiosks so workers can consult by phone or the Internet with staff doctors or other health providers.

Read the full article here.

Kids Caught In Medicaid Pay Crossfire

From CNNMoney.com:

A kid with a fractured leg highlights the problems Dr. Jaquelin Gotlieb's pediatric practice is having with Georgia's Medicaid system.

"I needed to send the child to a pediatric orthopedic surgeon," said Gotlieb. "I couldn't find a specialist who took Medicaid. It took so long that the leg healed on its own."

Gotlieb said getting paid "fairly" by Medicaid is such a problem for Georgia's doctors that many are no longer taking new patients, or dropping patients altogether. Others, she said, are going out of business because the payments from the program don't cover their costs.

The impact on her Atlanta-area practice has been profound. Because two pediatric clinics have closed in her area, she's seeing a lot more patients.

"This is the first time in my life that I'm seeing as many as 30 patients a day," said Gotlieb. "It's an extremely high number for me."

Consequently, as the number of Medicaid patients grows at her practice, Gotlieb said she's also losing money instead of making more money.

"It's become a desperate situation for us," said Gotlieb, who says 62% of her patients are now on Medicaid. Her practice, the Pediatric Center of Stone Mountain, has already laid off one of its four doctors since January, and four other employees were let go in the past three weeks.

Tips to Find Affordable Health Care

It is no secret that millions of Americans go with out health insurance because of high cost, and with the ongoing unemployment problems many families simple cannot afford coverage. Fortunately, MSN Money.com put together this helpful article with tips on how to find affordable health care. You can find a few of their tips below, but be sure to check out the full article at MSN Money.com.

If you're uninsured and seeking stopgap medical care before you find coverage again, you can triage your way to better health by understanding the trade-offs of several care options, experts say. A retail clinic, urgent care facility or community health center may be a suitable fit, depending on the severity of your medical need and your personal preferences.

A broad spectrum of care is available, from the limited offerings of a retail clinic to the high-end capacity of an emergency department, said Ateev Mehrotra, a policy analyst at Rand and a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

"They're all places you don't need an appointment, there's open extended hours, and they're there to treat people who can't get in to see their regular provider," Mehrotra said.

If you have a regular doctor you'd like to keep seeing but fear you can't pay full price because of lost coverage, give the doctor a chance to work out a charity care arrangement, payment plan or possible treatment changes to lower costs, said Dr. Lori Heim, the president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, who practices in Laurinburg, N.C.

Most doctors will try to work with patients to ensure their continuity of care, she said. "Physicians also value that personal relationship that develops."