Obamacare has strongly encouraged the creation of accountable care organizations, which focus on coordinating patient care so that, in theory, wasteful practices are eliminated and money is saved. But the early results have been mixed.
Healthcare Regulation and Reform
Is health insurance ripe for disruption by newer, tech-savvy market players? Oscar, a newcomer to the California health insurance exchange, certainly hopes so, and has the market valuation to back it up. But will the company's growth and innovation largely be limited to tech-savvy millennials?
Despite the numbers of Floridians stranded in a health policy no man’s land – earning too much for Medicaid but not enough for subsidies – the “coverage gap” was getting little attention from policymakers and media. A reporter at the Miami Herald set out to change that, by telling their stories.
The headlines have recently been dominated by talk of health insurers merging, but it's really part of a broader consolidation trend taking place in health care. Health policy expert Paul Ginsburg explains what's at stake when hospitals and physician groups combine, and how California is different.
When LA Times reporter Soumya Karlamangla started looking into health care policies affecting immigrants, she had no idea how fast the California policy landscape was about to change. Reflecting on her reporting journey over the past year, Karlamangla offers key tips for staying ahead of the story.
From hospital systems to pharmacies, this summer’s health headlines have been filled with tales of consolidation. And no where has the “merger mania” been more evident than the insurance sector. Health policy expert Paul Ginsburg helps us break down the trend in this Q&A.
Tradeoffs are a recurring theme when it comes to Obamacare plans — lower premiums often come with a smaller range of doctors to choose from, as a new database bears out. But as earlier research has shown, the relation between the size of physician networks and quality of care is, well, complicated.
Last year, California embarked on a bold new experiment to improve how care is coordinated among patients enrolled in both Medicaid and Medicare. But the progress has been anything but smooth for a host of reasons, as UCLA health researcher Kathryn Kietzman explains in this overview.
The U.S. Supreme Court voted to uphold the Affordable Care Act’s premium subsidies in a 6-3 ruling that prompted President Barack Obama to say the health law “is here to stay.” Here's what some leading experts and voices in the media had to say about the critical decision.
While states such as Texas and Florida have repeatedly rejected efforts to expand Medicaid in the first place, California is on the verge of expanding public health coverage to include undocumented children. But will they be able to find access to care in an already crowded Medicaid system?