Healthcare

Hospitals Targeted By Union Proposals

March 10, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> SACRAMENTO, CA -- As healthcare workers gathered outside California hospitals recently to collect signatures for two proposed ballot initiatives, they told voters the measures would rein in excessive hospital billings and expand healthcare for the poor.<br /> <br /> Unspoken in the public pitch was the fact that the measures, backed by the Service Employees International Union and aimed at private hospitals, would have a major effect on facilities the union has tried unsuccessfully to organize, while exempting those where many of its members work.<br /> <br />

Liz & Steve Parker, small business owners – Tulsa Rib Company – 
Orange, CA

March 5, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> <img class=" size-full wp-image-2389" alt="" class="right" src="http://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/images_steves_picture.jpg" style="width: 250px; height: 218px;" width="600" height="524" />Before my husband Steve started our restaurant 31 years ago, he worked as a dishwasher and in every other kind of food service job. He saw up close the struggle of employees who couldn’t take care of their families. They couldn’t pay a doctor to see a sick child, much less go to a hospital. So when Steve and his partners opened Tulsa Ribs, it was a no-brainer for them to provide employees with decent health insurance.</p>

Hospitals Mine Personal Data For Customers — Mail Campaigns Push Profitable Screenings

February 6, 2012  ·  Mark Reback

<p> When the oversized postcard arrived last August from Provena St. Joseph Medical Center promoting a lung cancer screening for current or former smokers over 55, Steven Boyd wondered how the hospital had found him.<br /> <br /> Boyd, 59, of Joliet, Ill., had smoked for decades, as had his wife, Karol.<br /> <br /> Provena didn't send the mailing to everyone who lived near the hospital, just those who had a stronger likelihood of having smoked based on their age, income, insurance status and other demographic criteria.<br /> <br />

Employee’s Web Post Triggers Inquiry

December 30, 2011  ·  Mark Reback

<p> <strong>HIPAA: Providence Holy Cross will probe claim as hospitals eye policy shift.</strong><br /> <br /> Providence Holy Cross Medical Center officials are investigating an employee who allegedly posted a patient's medical information on his Facebook page, apparently to make fun of the woman and her medical condition.<br /> <br />

Feds Say States Will Decide What Health Insurers Must Cover

December 20, 2011  ·  Carmen Balber

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Medical Errors Rise In 2010 Hits 5-Year Peak, State Report Says

November 29, 2011  ·  Mark Reback

<p> <strong>Parkview's five is in tie for highest</strong><br /> <br /> The number of critical medical errors in Indiana hospitals and surgery centers increased last year to 107, the most in the five years state officials have tracked 28 reportable events, according to a study released Monday.<br /> <br /> Parkview Hospital reported five significant events, a tie with a South Bend hospital for the most of any individual hospital in the state.<br /> <br />

NAIC Sides With Brokers in MLR Tussle

November 23, 2011  ·  Mark Reback

<p> <strong>Consumers advocates fume as commissioners recommend that Congress amend Affordable Care Act to exclude broker commissions from medical loss ratio.</strong></p>

Senate GOP Using MLR for Attack Fodder

October 28, 2011  ·  Mark Reback

<p> The medical loss ratio may not be the first thing that comes to voters’ minds when they think of the Affordable Care Act, but Republicans campaign operatives are trying to change that.<br /> <br /> While the health reform law has provided plenty of fodder for the GOP — think “death panels” and the individual mandate — new National Republican Senatorial Committee attacks exploiting the MLR show that the health reform law may be the gift that keeps on giving to Republicans.<br /> <br />

Obama’s dare to SCOTUS could screw patients & help insurers

October 21, 2011  ·  Jamie Court

<p> <img class=" size-full wp-image-2285" alt="" class="right" src="http://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/images_jamiepic-new2.jpg" style="width: 133px; height: 200px; " width="133" height="200" />In a remarkable act of either stupidity or brinksmanship, the Obama Administration <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/legal-challenges/188869-justice-dept-says-supreme-court-couldnt-strike-insurance-mandate-alone" target="_hplink" rel="noopener">challenged the US Supreme Court</a> to either keep the federal individual mandate to buy health insurance or throw it out with some of the most important consumer protections in the federal health care overhaul. </p>

Group Rips Indiana Request for Permanent Health Law Waiver

October 10, 2011  ·  Mark Reback

<p> The state of Indiana is under fire from consumer advocates for <a href="http://cciio.cms.gov/programs/marketreforms/mlr/states/indiana/mlr_letter_051311.pdf"><b>requesting</b></a> a perpetual waiver from a key provision of the healthcare reform law.</p> <p> The law allows waivers for health plans to phase in the law's medical loss ratio requirement, which requires the plans to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on medical care or give consumers a rebate. Indiana is the only state so far to request that high-deductible health plans be exempted forever.</p>

Guns ‘n Government Healthcare in Montana

September 29, 2011  ·  Judy Dugan

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The verdict on the Hernandez television advertisement

September 26, 2011  ·  Jamie Court

<p> <img class=" size-full wp-image-2250" alt="" class="right" src="http://consumerwatchdog.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/images_jamiepic-new1.jpg" style="width: 133px; height: 200px; " width="133" height="200" />Thanks to your support, we ran the <a href="http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/video/what-do-you-think-about-our-new-television-advertisement-about-ca-senator-ed-hernandez">television advertisement</a> about California State Senator Ed Hernandez about 300 times during the past week.</p>