All Entries Tagged With: "insurance"
Obama Asks Insurance Companies To Justify High Rates
President Obama on Tuesday warned the health insurance industry not to use the recent health care reform legislation as an excuse to raise premiums. He said this after meeting with the CEOs of major medical insurance companies at the White House.
Recognizing that the industry has genuine cost drivers, he told the CEOs that any substantial raise in the premium would have to be sufficiently justified.
‘High Risk’ Health Insurance Pool From September
In an attempt to cover the insurance needs of a large number of people in America, it has been decided that federally funded ‘high risk’ insurance pools would come into effect as soon as September 1. The decision comes as a reprieve for those who couldn’t afford private health insurances because of their pre-existing medical conditions. California is all set to be one of the first states to comply with this federal reform law.
As per the new policy, people who were earlier refused medical insurance on account of their chronic illness can now take advantage of the new ‘high risk’ insurance pool by paying much lower premiums.
AMA Pushes For Higher Accuracy In Insurance Claims Processing
At least 20 percent of medical claims are processed inaccurately by nation’s commercial health insurers, resulting in delayed payments to the doctors, the American Medical Association observed in its third annual report card on insurers.
An expenditure of $210 billion is incurred annually just to process the claims, it said, while estimating that 100 percent accuracy would save doctors and consumers $15.5 billion annually. One of the key objectives of the report card is to bring down the costs doctors have to bear in claims processing.
