Oct 23, 2017 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement
Push to expand the reach of health savings plans should help consumers pay for out-of-pocket medical laboratory services and other healthcare expenses High-deductible health plans (HDHPs) continue to impact hospitals, clinical laboratories, and anatomic pathology groups due to the strain they put on healthcare consumers who struggle to pay their medical bills. Even worse, studies show patients are skipping doctor visits and scheduled medical laboratory tests to avoid paying the full costs of...
Mar 14, 2014 | Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Targeted at employers and their employees, myEasyBook is designed to help consumers with high-deductible health plans save 30% or more when picking a provider It is rare for a national health insurance company to use the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to unveil a new online healthcare service, but that’s exactly what UnitedHealthcare Group (NYSE: UNH) did. On January 7, it took the wraps off its new myEasyBook healthcare shopping service. Clinical laboratory managers...
Apr 13, 2010 | Coding, Billing, and Collections, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Management & Operations
With more and more consumers participating in high-deductible health plans, health savings accounts, and other forms of consumer-directed health plans, physicians and laboratories have to collect substantially more money from their patients. Collecting from patients while they are still in the physician’s office is the ideal situation, but must patients don’t know what their copayment, deductible, or out-of-pocket is for any given service. In many cases, that means that the physician must bill...
Jul 16, 2008 | Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
With a national election approaching, political rhetoric about different views of current health programs is heating up. Two Democratic members of Congress from California released a report in May claiming that Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are used more often as a tax shelter for the wealthy than as a path to health benefits for working- and middle-class families. Their report was based on a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study that indicated that HSAs may not be benefiting the...
Apr 19, 2007 | Laboratory Pathology, Managed Care Contracts & Payer Reimbursement, Management & Operations
Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) are on the rise in the United States. According to a fact sheet from the White House this month, “The number of Americans with HSAs has tripled from one million in March 2005 to the more than three million reported in January 2006. The number of Americans with HSAs is currently projected to increase to 29 million by 2010.” These accounts consist of a contribution made by an employer to an employee’s tax-free savings account. The HSA is combined with a...
