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More Than Half of Patients Consider Budget Before Making Medical Visits

"[One survey] found that 57% considered their budget before making health-related decisions. Nearly 31% attempted to be frugal by skipping or reducing annual visits to their primary care physician, and 32% passed up or cut back on follow-up appointments. Almost 27% went without or decreased visits to specialists. When it came to blood work and lab tests, almost 21% refrained from them because of cost concerns. Nineteen percent went without an imaging test."

To Reduce Health Care Costs, Large Employers Try Domestic Medical Tourism

"International medical tourism, where patients cross borders for less expensive care, never really took off. Some employers are looking closer to home as a means of controlling health care costs and improving outcomes.... Several cities, including Miami and Las Vegas, are starting to market themselves as destinations for health care services."

Health Blog: American Express Cancels Health Savings Account Cards

Excerpt: AmericanExpress, one of several financial institutions to develop an HSA product, introduced 'HealthPay Plus,' a debit card linked to HSAs that customers could use to pay for health care. Insurance giants WellPoint and Cigna had signed onto the program, according to American Medical News. But that wasn't enough to save the plan, which American Express will discontinue by the end of the year, citing high costs and low uptake among consumers.

Bad News for Retirees: No Social Security Cost-of-Living Increase, Higher Medical Costs for Many

"Most Americans have their outpatient care premiums for Medicare Part B deducted directly from their Social Security checks, and the annual cost-of-living increase usually covers any increase to premiums. When it doesn't, a longstanding 'hold harmless' law protects about 70 percent of seniors from having their Social Security payments reduced. But that leaves about 30 percent of Americans on Medicare to cover a hike to premiums that otherwise would be spread across everyone. That group includes people new to Medicare, federal retirees who don't receive Social Security payments and about 3.1 million people with higher incomes, that is, those making more than $85,000."

New York Lawsuit Raises Question of HMO Accountability

Excerpt: The AMA's Litigation Center and the Medical Society of the State of New York have filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a case against a health plan, Vytra Healthcare, that is now before the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In it, the physician groups say the New York-based plan should have to answer for going against a physician's recommendation that a patient receive an aggressive cancer treatment.

Over Half of Americans Have Medical Debt, Even Those with Health Insurance

"69% of respondents who pay for their own health insurance reported medical debt, as did 61% of respondents with policies through their employer and 59% of respondents with no health insurance at all. One reason people with health insurance seem to be more likely to have debt than those without coverage: deductibles."

The Pervasiveness of California Health Insurance Rescissions

Excerpt: [Comments on an article published in the American Medical News] Although California has been in the news because of the rescission practices of its private insurers, this article demonstrates the pervasiveness of this practice. UnitedHealth spokesman Tyler Mason's statement that they are helping consumers by holding down health insurance inflation applies only to healthy consumers who clear their underwriting standards.

Individuals with Genetic Conditions Twice as Likely to Report Denial of Health Insurance

Excerpt: Should genetic information ever be used to deny an otherwise healthy person health care coverage? Should actual genetic disease ever be used to deny a person health care coverage? Is there any reason at all to separate genetic information from medical information in making decisions about health care coverage?

Scores of Bogus Health Insurers Collect Premiums, Ignore Claims

Excerpt: Sham health insurers are racking up hundreds of millions of dollars in unpaid medical bills -- leaving patients across the country with the tab and doctors with little chance of getting paid, according to a new government report. Health insurance fraud comes in waves, and the recession has caused the latest upsurge.

U.S. Supreme Court to Decide If Patients Can Sue Health Plans

Excerpt: Doctors and patients argue that health plans that get involved with medical decision-making should, as a measure of last resort, have to answer for harmful decisions in state court. But health plans say the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 shields them from state lawsuits, which they believe would drive up already rising health care costs.