Author: wpadmin

Americans Disheartened by Changes in U.S. Healthcare System Despite the many purported triumphs of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a large portion of the U.S. populace believes that their healthcare is decidedly worse following these major health reforms.  ACA, more popularly known as Obamacare, was intended to improve quality of care, expand access and curtail rampant cost increases, but few people feel it has achieved these goals.  A new poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians found that only 15 percent of respondents feel that healthcare has improved.  More than 50 percent felt that there was no change in the quality of care, while 30 percent actually believe that care quality has dropped in the past year. Although the Obama administration has constantly repeated that almost 20 million more…

In 2016, health care costs were expected to grow 6.5 percent, far more than inflation. While not as great as in some years, this burgeoning financial responsibility has much of the business community vigorously searching for solutions to keep health care costs in check. While many employers are utilizing tactics like higher deductible plans or increased co-payments, some companies are investing in strategies that cut costs at the source. According to consulting firm Willis Towers Watson, almost 45 percent of employers with a thousand or more employees are granting employees access to health care centers of excellence (COEs), organizations that have high care quality ratings. This is a marked increase from the previous year when only 37 percent of large companies utilized COEs. In the same survey, an additional 32 percent of…