Health Care Delivery

The 2016 presidential race has been mostly about the candidates' personal qualities and less about their policies. But that doesn't mean Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton don't have debate-worthy ideas in their healthcare platforms.

Panelists Leah Binder; Austin Frakt, PhD; Margaret E. O'Kane, MHA; and Matt Salo discussed Medicaid expansion, the medical loss ratio, managing specialty populations, and more during the Healthcare Reform Stakeholders Summit.

In an attempt to appease the Department of Justice and save their proposed merger, Aetna and Humana make deals to sell certain Medicare Advantage assets to Molina Healthcare.

What we're reading, August 4, 2016: a new startup is aiming to move clinical trial data to the cloud; Aetna is informing physicians about the opioid prescribing habits; and Florida deploys a mosquito control team to combat Zika virus.

Outpatient service charges are estimated to cause a 29.9% spike in healthcare premiums in 2017, much higher than the 14.3% projected for medications.

What we're reading, August 3, 2016: Medicare penalties for hospital readmissions reach a new high; the importance of down-ballot races this election; and Virginia's Bureau of Insurance comes out against the Anthem-Cigna merger.

What we're reading, August 2, 2016: co-ops in New Mexico and Massachusetts sue the government over the risk-adjustment formula and why hospital ratings should be viewed with a bit of skepticism.

Consumers on the Affordable Care Act's public exchanges have shown a willingness to shop around for coverage that heath plans can tap into.

What we're reading, August 1, 2016: proponents of Colorado's proposed state universal healthcare want Bernie Sanders' help; thousands need new health coverage in Ohio and Connecticut; and the trouble with getting a patient off a prescription.

The American Enterprise Institute released a report that detailed several proposals of change for the ACA that could possibly be implemented with the next president. Joe Antos, PhD, the Wilson H. Taylor Scholar in Health Care and Retirement Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, said that though these changes would depend on the party in office, implementing them wouldn’t necessarily be easy.