Friday, November 1, 2013

The Obamacare meltdown continues: New report says most top hospitals won't accept Obamacare

This blog is dedicated to climate change issues, but now that 

  • my Blue Cross healthcare plan has been cancelled due to not meeting Obamacare requirements [along with the plans of 90 million other Americans]
  • the Obamacare website crashed after taking all of my identity theft information and I have been unable to log in to look at any plans or sign-up for a plan despite several attempts
  • and news today that my preferred top hospital facility is not on the Obamacare list [see below]
I'm sharing this news today that many others may also find themselves out of network at top-tier hospitals:
Most of the 18 hospitals on this year's U.S. News and World Report's Honor Roll will accept insurance from just one or two companies selling plans on the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) insurance exchanges, according to a Watchdog.org investigation.

Many Obamacare exchange plans do not include top hospitals

Report: Americans may find themselves out of network at top-tier facilities
November 01, 2013
Most of the 18 hospitals on this year's U.S. News and World Report's Honor Roll will accept insurance from just one or two companies selling plans on the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) insurance exchanges, according to a Watchdog.org investigation.
    >> Which Honor Roll hospitals accept your insurance under Obamacare? See the full list.
The investigative news site contacted each of the 18 hospitals on the 2013-2014 Honor Roll to determine their contracts. Investigators also spoke with insurance companies.  
The two hospitals on the top of the Honor Roll—Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland and Massachusetts General Hospital—are required by their state's laws to accept all insurance plans.
However, the investigation found that 11 of the remaining 16 hospitals on the list accept insurance from just one or two carriers selling plans on the exchanges. Even in states like California, where a dozen insurers are participating in the state marketplace, top hospitals accept few exchange plans, Watchdog.org noted. For example, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center will only accept insurance from one company.
University Hospitals Case Medical Center in Cleveland accepted insurance from four carriers in the exchanges, more than any other Honor Roll hospital. Meanwhile, the investigation notes that the hospitals also accept insurance plans sold outside the exchanges. For instance, Cleveland Clinic accepts dozens of insurance plans sold outside of the exchanges.

A price-quality tradeoff?

Former CMS Administrator Gail Wilensky says the investigation's findings do not come as a surprise. "There has been an incredible amount of focus on" premium costs and subsidies in the exchanges, but "precious little focus on what you get for your money," she says.
In response to the ACA's caps on premiums, insurers are expected to reimburse top-tier doctors and hospitals at lower levels. Many insurers are "concerned that [the exchanges] will be dominated by risky, high-using populations who wanted insurance [before Obamacare] and couldn't afford it," says Wilensky, adding that they "are pressed to narrow their networks to stay within the premiums."
Some experts worry that the changes will surprise consumers shopping on the exchanges, in part because many exchanges sites do not provide the names of physicians and hospitals include in the plans.
"In many cases, consumers are shopping blind when it comes to what doctors and hospitals are included in their Obamacare exchange plans," says Josh Archambault of the Foundation for Government Accountability. "These patients will be in for a rude awakening once they need care, and get stuck with a big bill for going out-of-network without realizing it," he notes.
The investigation also found deeper issues with the law's implementation: "Some hospitals and doctors don't even know if they are in the network," Archambault says. For example, Seattle Children's Hospital—No. 11 on U.S. News' best pediatric hospital list—recently filed a lawsuit after it discovered it had been excluded from five of seven insurance companies in Washington's exchange (Watchdog.org/U.S. News, 10/30).

Where are the U.S. News 'Best Hospitals'?

We mapped out this year's 'Best Hospitals' and listed the five U.S. cities with the largest number of ranked hospitals.

39 comments:

  1. This is why we need to simply expand Medicare to cover all Americans. Get rid of the bloated, inefficient private system that sees Americans' life expectancy dropping while we spend more on healthcare than any other nation. Romney/Heritage Foundation/Republican Health proposal from the '90s/Obamacare is a failure.

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  2. Sorry but what has this got to do with climate? Really think you're missing the point mixing politics with "science", you are doing the same as the warmist :(

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  3. I am glad for the change of topic every now and then. This is alarming to me as well....depressing to hear this.

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  4. Although I understand your worries for the U.S. healthcare, I am disappointed that you let that interrupt the excellent coverage of climate related issues. I would recommend that you let such matters rest aside since the for us non-U.S. followers of your site, such political debate with the unavoidable political biases in a two party system as yours, can unfortunately affect the overall image that one has of your otherwise wonderful site.

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    1. it is peripherally related to EPA climate legislation in the US, believe it or not, since it involves similar actions by the Obama admin. to circumvent legislation by Congress. This happened after Obamacare passed and then the intent of the law changed by the Obama admin. with regulations. Thus, an avenue to fight in the Supreme Court.

      http://hockeyschtick.blogspot.com/search?q=obamacare

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  5. http://news.investors.com/IBD-Editorials-On-The-Right/110113-677669-elections-in-2014-and-2016-give-americans-chance-to-reject-soviet-style-planning.htm

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  6. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304073204579171762226617546

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  7. How Low Can They Go?
    The White House attacks a cancer patient.

    Publ in WSJ today:

    By JAMES TARANTO CONNECT
    November 4, 2013
    It's been just over a month since ObamaCare's disastrous launch, and it's just over three years until the scheduled election of Barack Obama's successor. It's going to be a long three years. The exposure of Obama's signature "achievement" as both incompetent and fraudulent (with its economic inviability yet to be realized) is also showing the administration's true face. It is an ugly one, and we can expect to see a lot more of it while Obama remains in office.

    This morning the White House went on the attack against a cancer patient who is also a victim of ObamaCare. Edie Littlefield Sundby of San Diego explains in today's Wall Street Journal that she's been managing a case of stage 4 gallbladder cancer, an affliction whose five-year survival rate is just 2%. Having survived the diagnosis by seven years so far, she beat very long odds--and she did so with the help of an excellent insurance plan that covered care at three hospitals, two in California and one in Texas.

    In touting ObamaCare, Obama asserted at least two dozen times (in slightly varying language) that if you like your health plan, you can keep it. As Sundby explains, she is a victim of Obama's fraudulent sales pitch:

    Since March 2007 United Healthcare has paid $1.2 million to help keep me alive, and it has never once questioned any treatment or procedure recommended by my medical team. The company pays a fair price to the doctors and hospitals, on time, and is responsive to the emergency treatment requirements of late-stage cancer. Its caring people in the claims office have been readily available to talk to me and my providers.
    But in January, United Healthcare sent me a letter announcing that they were pulling out of the individual California market. The company suggested I look to Covered California starting in October.
    Covered California is the state ObamaCare exchange, one of those that, unlike the administration-built federal one, has some degree of technical functionality. Thus Sundby was able to log in and check out her options, which--contrary to Obama's "new and improved" sales pitch, that people whose policies are canceled will get better insurance--were unsatisfactory. No plan available to her would cover both her primary-care doctor at the University of San California, San Diego, and her oncologist at Stanford.
    http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303482504579177811453111326?mod=rss_opinion_main

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  8. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304073204579167743216156238?mod=rss_opinion_main

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  9. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303618904579167611885025296?mod=rss_opinion_main

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  10. http://news.investors.com/IBD-Editorials-On-The-Right/110413-677857-affordable-care-act-an-old-idea.htm?ven=rss

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  11. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303936904579179974072632600?mod=rss_opinion_main

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  12. http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-obama-care/110513-678060-129-million-will-lose-their-health-care-plans.htm?ven=rss

    http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/110513-678062-obama-has-seriously-breached-americans-trust.htm?ven=rss

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  13. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303914304579193842166052088

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  14. http://news.investors.com/IBD-Editorials-On-The-Right/111213-678930-millions-with-coverage-at-work-to-lose-their-insurance.htm?ven=rss

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  15. http://blog.heartland.org/2013/11/the-coming-revelation-of-the-global-warming-fraud-resembles-the-obamacare-lie/?utm_source=feedly

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  16. http://pjmedia.com/blog/medicaid-for-al-qaeda-obamacare-flaw-allows-anyone-on-earth-to-fraudulently-enroll-through-healthcare-gov/

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  17. http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/11/obamacare-fraud-exposed.php

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  18. http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-obama-care/110713-678406-obamacare-navigators-could-be-convicted-felons.htm?ven=rss

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  19. http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-perspective/110613-678212-hidden-in-obamacare-is-penalty-against-marriage.htm?p=full

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  20. http://thisgotmyattention.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/you-can-keep-your-health-insurance-period-all-of-you-not-named-period/

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  21. http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterferrara/2013/11/12/the-coming-revelation-of-the-global-warming-fraud-resembles-the-obamacare-lie/

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  22. http://blogs.wsj.com/experts/2013/10/28/suzanne-somers-the-affordable-care-act-is-a-socialist-ponzi-scheme/

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  23. http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/111313-679138-obama-imposes-a-massive-middle-class-tax-hike.htm?ven=rss

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  24. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304243904579197892755143418?mod=rss_opinion_main

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  25. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304243904579198223229925250?mod=rss_opinion_main

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  26. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303789604579197883480604424?mod=rss_opinion_main

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  27. http://www.c3headlines.com/2013/11/the-democrats-obamacare-ordeal-a-fiasco-liberals-progressives-own-part-7.html

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  28. http://blog.heartland.org/2013/11/the-obamacare-fix-is-in/

    http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303531204579207724152219590

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  29. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303460004579192081764514664?mod=rss_opinion_main

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  30. http://blog.heartland.org/2013/12/ten-obamacare-talking-points-to-ruin-your-thanksgiving/?utm_source=feedly

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  31. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303497804579240213257120826?mod=rss_opinion_main

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  32. http://townhall.com/columnists/debrajsaunders/2013/12/05/obamacares-next-problem-doc-shock-n1757759?utm_source=thdaily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl

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  33. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304014504579246552456954872?mod=rss_opinion_main

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  34. http://blog.heartland.org/2013/12/heartland-daily-podcast-obamacare-doc-shock-ben-domenech/?utm_source=feedly

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  35. http://news.investors.com/IBD-Editorials-On-The-Right/121013-682411-obamacare-violates-the-ties-between-doctor-and-patient.htm?ven=rss

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  36. http://www.advisory.com/Daily-Briefing/2013/12/13/The-lie-of-the-year-If-you-like-it-you-can-keep-it

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  37. http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-obama-care/121813-683475-obamacare-interferes-with-residential-and-travel-liberties.htm?ven=rss

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  38. http://touch.latimes.com/?touch=198#section/1717/article/p2p-79169182/

    www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/02/obamacare-and-employment?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/grimprognosis

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