Threat Of Monopolies Looms As Insurers Withdraw From ACA Markets, Analysis Shows
More than 60 percent of counties in the United States could have only one or two options for coverage in 2017, according to a new analysis. Meanwhile, enrollment numbers are significantly lower than predicted.
The Wall Street Journal:
Health Insurers’ Pullback Threatens To Create Monopolies
Nearly a third of the nation’s counties look likely to have just a single insurer offering health plans on the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges next year, according to a new analysis, an industry pullback that adds to the challenges facing the law. The new study, by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation, suggests there could be just one option for coverage in 31% of counties in 2017, and there might be only two in another 31%. That would give exchange customers in large swaths of the U.S. far less choice than they had this year, when 7% of counties had one insurer and 29% had two. (Wilde Mathews and Armour, 8/28)
The Washington Post:
Health-Care Exchange Sign-Ups Fall Far Short Of Forecasts
Enrollment in the insurance exchanges for President Obama’s signature health-care law is at less than half the initial forecast, pushing several major insurance companies to stop offering health plans in certain markets because of significant financial losses. As a result, the administration’s promise of a menu of health-plan choices has been replaced by a grim, though preliminary, forecast: Next year, more than 1 in 4 counties are at risk of having a single insurer on its exchange, said Cynthia Cox, who studies health reform for the Kaiser Family Foundation. (Johnson, 8/27)
In other national health law news —
NPR/Center For Public Integrity:
Audits Of Some Medicare Advantage Plans Reveal Pervasive Overcharging
More than three dozen just-released audits reveal how some private Medicare plans overcharged the government for the majority of elderly patients they treated, often by overstating the severity of certain medical conditions, such as diabetes and depression. The Center for Public Integrity recently obtained, through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, the federal audits of 37 Medicare Advantage programs. These audits have never before been made public, and though they reveal overpayments from 2007 — money that has since been paid back — many plans are still appealing the findings. (Schulte, 8/29)
The New York Times:
All Donated Blood In U.S. Should Be Tested For Zika, F.D.A. Says
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday took steps to safeguard the nation’s blood supply from the Zika virus, calling for all blood banks to screen donations for the infection even in states where the virus is not circulating. The recommendations are an acknowledgment that sexual transmission may facilitate the spread of Zika even in areas where mosquitoes carrying the virus are not present. Officials also want to prepare for the possibility that clusters of local infection will continue to pop up in parts of the United States for years to come. (Saint Louis, 8/26)
The Washington Post:
Cancer Researchers: It’s Time To Pay More Attention To ‘Miracle’ Patients
Call it luck — or a medical miracle. During clinical trials for experimental cancer drugs, some patients simply respond better than others. And a tiny fraction of patients see dramatic results, responding so well to treatment that they survive forms of cancers that quickly kill their counterparts. Stories about people like Emily Whitehead, the then-6-year-old who was enrolled in a clinical trial that saved her life, make headlines. But statistically speaking, they’re insignificant, mere outliers. Because they deviate so far from the norm, these “exceptional responders” are often overlooked by researchers. Not so fast, says Eric Perakslis. (Blakemore, 8/26)