The Perfect Mother’s Day Gift

Posted on May 10, 2012 by hcfany

Guest Blogger, Maryanne Tomazic, Field Coordinator, Raising Women’s Voices This weekend is Mother’s Day. My inbox is full of e-mails from various fruit, flower, and chocolate companies reminding me to send a gift to my mother. Unfortunately, my mom doesn’t like those traditional gifts. I once bought her a box of pears – to which she [...]

Filed under: ACA, Children, Federal health reform, Insurance reform, Underinsured, Uninsured, Women, young adult | Tagged: , , , , | Comments Off

Let health reform buy you lunch!

Posted on May 7, 2012 by hcfany

Or dinner!  Or drinks!  Or whatever else it is that you’d like! See, as part of the ACA, insurers who offer health coverage to individuals and small businesses must spend at least 80% of what their enrollees pay in premiums on health care claims and quality improvement activities (in NY, state law actually requires this to be [...]

Filed under: ACA, Affordable, Employer Sponsored Health Insurance, Federal health reform, Insurance reform, Premiums, Small Business | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Employer-sponsored insurance still on the decline

Posted on April 27, 2012 by hcfany

A new report put out by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) looks at national trends in employer-sponsored benefits between 1997 and 2010.  Not surprisingly, what they are finding looks pretty darn grim.  During that time: The percentage of workers who are offered health insurance benefits by their employers has declined from 70.1% to 67.5%, and the number [...]

Filed under: ACA, Employer Sponsored Health Insurance, Federal health reform, Insurance Exchange, Small Business, Uninsured | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Insurance companies pull a fast one on consumers

Posted on April 24, 2012 by hcfany

Did anyone read the Times this morning? There’s an article out by Nina Bernstein about the latest in what seems to be an ever-growing list of insurance company shenanigans.  This time, it has to do with provider reimbursement rates for out-of-network care.  You see, back in 2009 the state reached a settlement with insurance plans that required them [...]

Filed under: Accountability, Affordable, Balance billing, Comprehensive Coverage, Insurance Exchange, Insurance reform | Tagged: , , | Comments Off

DFS puts Excellus in the dog house.

Posted on April 20, 2012 by hcfany

Yesterday, the NYS Department of Financial Services (DFS) announced that they had fined Rochester-based Excellus Health Plan $995,000 for violation of several insurance laws. Apparently, between 2003 and 2007, the company improperly denied 166 emergency room claims and failed to explain coverage to plan members in 337,689 instances.  Excellus has stated that the denied claims had to do with a computer error [...]

Filed under: Accountability, Insurance reform | Tagged: , , | Comments Off

What would you do?

Posted on March 23, 2012 by hcfany

The ACA may have saved Raymond Owens’s life. Raymond and his wife Adele have owned a flooring contracting business for 25 years and their three children are the focus of their life.  Their quest for a better life for their family became more difficult when Adele was laid off from Home Depot two years ago. [...]

Filed under: ACA, Affordable, COBRA, Federal health reform, Premiums, Uninsured | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

The voters have spoken!

Posted on March 7, 2012 by hcfany

The AARP today released a statewide poll that found that voters aged 30-64 strongly support the establishment of a NYS Health Insurance Exchange through this year’s State budget.  Specifically, they found that: 3 in 5 registered voters in NY age 30-64 support the governor’s plan to create a health insurance exchange. Nearly 2 in 3 respondents indicated that it should be a top or high [...]

Filed under: ACA, Affordable, Comprehensive Coverage, Federal health reform, Insurance Exchange, Insurance reform, New York State Budget, New York State Politics, Uninsured | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Essential health benefits, for NY.

Posted on February 27, 2012 by hcfany

You may remember some talk about “essential health benefits” (EHBs) under the ACA back in October when the Institute of Medecine released its recommendationsto the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).   At that point, it was still unclear what HHS was going to come back with. Well, in December HHS released a bulletin outlining what it [...]

Filed under: ACA, Comprehensive Coverage, Employer Sponsored Health Insurance, Insurance reform | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Happy (Health Policy) Valentine’s Day!

Posted on February 14, 2012 by hcfany

Well, it’s that time of the year again! February 14th and love is in the air – and in the social media blogosphere… Anybody who is on twitter or follows us @hcfany will probably have noticed the hashtag #healthpolicyvalentines take off at the end of last week.  This has really brought a smile to this [...]

Filed under: ACA, Insurance reform, Medicare | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

Understanding your health benefits may soon get easier

Posted on February 10, 2012 by hcfany

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) yesterday released it’s final regulations regarding the information that health insurance companies will have to give to consumers about their plans in order to allow them to compare plans and make informed choices.  Basically, it’s a simple, easy-to-understand way to explain to folks what is covered and what [...]

Filed under: ACA, Accountability, Insurance reform | Tagged: , , , | Comments Off

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