What is the concept behind private health exchanges?
Essentially, these exchanges (known as PHIXs) operate similarly to the public exchanges set up under the Accountable Care Act ("ACA"), except without subsidies. That said, there are many different PHIX models, ranging from regional to national, and including many different types of participants (for instance, individuals vs. employers). The ACA accelerated the growth of PHIXs and their development into specific models, as discussed by the consultancy HealthcareSolutionsConnection about a year ago: Private Health Exchanges.
What's the story behind the boom in private healthcare exchanges in the U.S.?
Private health insurance exchanges (so-called PHIXs) started several decades ago, but their growth was catalyzed by the Affordable Care Act's launch of public exchanges which expanded the market and started the shift to value-based reimbursement models. Carrie Nixon and Carson Porter at HealthcareSolutionsConnection have been writing about the boom in PHIXs for nearly two years.
HIE HEALTH INFORMATION EXCHANGE Ways that privacy and security concerns are addressed?
"Protected Health Information" ("PHI"). PHI includes written, spoken, and electronic information and images. The Privacy Rule requires you to "safeguard" PHI at your training site. Use the following practices to ensure Privacy Rule compliance. If you see a medical record in public view where patients or others can see it, cover the file, turn it over, or find another way to protect it. When you talk about patients as part of your training, try to prevent others from overhearing the conversation. Whenever possible, hold conversations about patients in private areas. Do not discuss patients while you are in elevators or other public areas. When medical records are not in use, store them in offices, shelves or filing cabinets. Remove patient documents from faxes and copiers as soon as you can. When you throw away documents containing PHI, follow the facility procedures for disposal of documents with PHI. Never remove the patient's official medical record from the training site. Avoid removing copies of PHI from the training site; if you must remove copies of PHI from the training site, e.g., to complete homework, take appropriate steps to safeguard the PHI outside of the training site and properly dispose of the PHI when you are done with it. You should not leave PHI out where your family members or others may see it. All copies of PHI should be shredded when they are no longer needed for your training purposes. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued another set of HIPAA rules (the Security Rules) regarding safety and security of electronic data files and computer equipment. In the next few months you will be hearing more about electronic safeguards and how the HIPAA Security Rules may affect you at clinical training sites. Use Only the Minimum Necessary Information Before you may discuss a patient's condition, treatment or other PHI with his or her family member, it must be determined if the patient would object to such a disclosure. You should confirm with your supervisor that the patient has agreed to allow or in some other way has expressed no objection to such disclosures before you may discuss a patient's condition, treatment, or other PHI with his/her family members. Patients' Rights Under the Privacy Rule http://www.grelu.com
I need health insurance. Should I get private insurance or Obamacare?
Obamacare is not a government-sponsored health insurance plan. Instead, it’s the nickname for the law which requires most people to have health insurance starting this year. You don’t sign up for Obamacare, you only comply with it by getting health insurance or else you run the risk of paying a tax penalty on your 2014 federal tax return. The current open enrollment period runs through the end of March 2014. During that time, you can get health insurance through a licensed agent, directly from the insurer, or through a state health insurance exchange without fear of being declined for coverage based on your medical history. After March 31, you may not be able to obtain health insurance at all until the next open enrollment period comes around. Some people will qualify for government subsidies to help them pay for health insurance which they buy on their own. In order to qualify for subsidies, you need to have a household income of less than 400% of the federal poverty level, which is about $62,000 for a family of two. However, if you are eligible to obtain health insurance through your wife’s employer, you may not qualify for subsidies even if your household income is lower than that amount. Basically, in order for you to get government subsidies to help pay for your coverage, the amount of money your wife has to contribute from her paychecks towards HER OWN coverage must be more than 9% of your household income. I suggest that you work with a licensed agent online or in your area to get an idea of what’s available. Any individual health insurance plan you buy right now will meet your coverage requirements under the health reform law, whether you buy it through an agent or through a government exchange. Exchanges exist primarily to help subsidy-eligible people find subsidy-eligible plans. Outside of the exchanges, you may find more options. You can learn more about the health reform law through our online resource center here: https://www.ehealthinsurance.com/afforda... Best wishes.
What are the top private health insurance exchanges by marketshare?
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How are private health insurance exchanges expected to change in the next five years in the US?
Five years is a long time, and expecting a certain outcome would be pretty foolish. Here's what I'd like to occur, though - 1. Private health insurance exchanges become more and more liquid. Instead of making companies curate a few plans and offer them to their employees (which we did at Augmedix and seemed rather silly), tools come out that allow a company to just say "OK employee, here's the health exchange, go pick one of the 200 plans and we'll contribute X dollars to whichever one it is."2. An employee complains that they already have a policy they like that they purchased on the public health insurance exchange and companies recognize there's no reason they shouldn't just contribute X dollars to their employee if they choose a public exchange plan.3. Everyone realizes that the difference between public and private exchanges just becomes who the company pays their contribution to (insurance company vs employee) and that either way everyone is insured.4. We ask ourselves why we still have private exchanges and just nix the whole concept and put everyone on the public exchange.5. Universal healthcare without employers being forced to be the intermediary!