Obamacare Premiums To Spike 25% On Average, But HHS Says Subsidies, Shopping Will Help
The Obama administration says customers buying insurance from the exchanges will still be able to find plans for less than $100 a month with help from federal subsidies.
The New York Times:
Some Health Plan Costs To Increase By An Average Of 25 Percent, U.S. Says
Premiums for midlevel health plans under the Affordable Care Act will increase by an average of 25 percent next year, while consumers in some states will find significantly fewer insurance companies offering coverage, the federal government said Monday. (Pear, 10/24)
In other national health care news —
The New York Times:
AARP Sues U.S. Over Rules For Wellness Programs
Employers have raced to offer workers a hefty financial incentive to sign up for programs meant to improve their health, submitting personal medical details in the process. But as these programs have spread, so has resistance from employees dubious about sharing that information with employers. On Monday, that tension erupted in a federal lawsuit against the government agency that handles the rules on these so-called wellness programs. (Abelson, 10/24)
Modern Healthcare:
CMS Halts Auto-Enrollment Proposals From Medicare Advantage Plans
The CMS has temporarily stopped accepting new proposals from health insurance companies seeking to automatically enroll their commercial or Medicaid patients into their Medicare Advantage plans. The federal agency also disclosed that 29 Medicare Advantage companies—including Aetna, UnitedHealth Group and several Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurers—can move consumers who had been enrolled in a regular plan into their Medicare Advantage products once the consumers turn 65 years old. (Herman and Livingston, 10/24)
The Washington Post:
Newt Gingrich Is The New Face Of A Controversial Opioid Addiction Therapy
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will be joining former Obama adviser Anthony Kapel “Van” Jones on stage on Monday in Washington to discuss a topic that they've not spoken much about in the past: the nation's opioid addiction crisis. The two men — along with former U.S. representative Patrick Kennedy, who has written a memoir about his struggles with cocaine, painkillers and alcohol — are “founding advisers” of a nonprofit that popped up in the summer called Advocates for Opioid Recovery. Its mission is “advancing a science-based, evidence-based treatment system that can reduce death and suffering from opioid addiction. (Cha, 10/24)
The Washington Post:
What You Need To Know About Those New, Deadly Heart-Surgery Infections
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned open-heart surgery patients recently that they were at risk of a deadly infection linked to a medical device used during their operations. Now, worried consumers say they are having a hard time getting information from hospitals and doctors about what they should do. (Sun, 10/24)
Stat:
How Hospital Sinks Became A Health Problem
In a devilish case of unintended consequences, sinks have been linked to a number of outbreaks of serious infections in hospitals from Baltimore to Shanghai and many places in between in recent years. In one notable case, a hospital in the Netherlands took sinks out of the patient rooms in its intensive care unit in a bid to slow the spread of bacteria. (It worked.) At a time when concern is mounting about antibiotic resistance, and when the specter of untreatable infections threatens the advances of modern medicine, finding ways to slow the development and spread of drug-resistant bacteria is a major preoccupation of infection control teams. As a result, evidence that hospital sinks could exacerbate the problem presents health care specialists with a quandary. (Branswell, 10/25)