Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to coverage, prescription medications, benefits and providers under health insurance plans.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) have announced enforcement actions against two Medicare Advantage Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) contractors. Both Silver Star Health Network in Lubbock, TX, and Alexian Brothers Community Services in St. Louis, MO, received civil monetary penalties of $25,000 each for non-compliance of Medicare regulations. Formal letters notifying the Medicare Advantage Plans of the penalty were sent out August 1, 2013.
Maybe you can’t walk back in time, but you certainly can walk through part of California’s water history. Dug by hand in the side of the hill above the south fork of the Yuba River, the abandoned water canal and flumes have been transformed into a fairly easy, wheelchair accessible, hike. Named appropriately the Independence Trail, it’s more of a walk than a hike.
How would you react if you woke up one day and suddenly realized your father was a black man? For years you had always seen your father in all those pictures and he looked very similar to you. For the first time in your life you have to begin identifying with a man that doesn’t […]
It was amusing to see the Los Angeles Times afford Edward Snowden, on the run from the United States for leaking classified information, the status of an “undocumented” American. No sooner had Russian news media reported that the undocumented American would be given papers to cross into Russia than his lawyer said Snowden’s attempt to […]
The attending emergency room physician slipped her camera phone out of her pocket, focused on the patient’s leg and snapped a picture. As the patient sat in slightly stunned silence, the doctor posted the picture to her Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter pages with the caption, “Has anyone ever seen a nasty leg rash like this before?”
As the nation prepares for the big roll out of outreach and education for the new health care reform state insurance exchanges, the fact can’t be obscured that actively advocating for the repeal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is in direct opposition to the holy scripture of many religious faiths to care for your neighbor […]
My first memory of the prolonged itching sensation on my arms and neck was during a summer school biology course when I was 14 years old. The distraction of constantly wanting to scratch while trying to focus on cutting up a frog was pure torture. This seemingly random condition, for which no other friend or family member suffered, would follow me through young adulthood and on into middle age.
Anthem Blue Cross of California has withdrawn their application to offer small group health insurance plans through Covered California. Unlike the individual and family market health plans purchased through Covered California that will be invoiced directly by the respective carrier, the SHOP plans are to be purchased and administered by Covered California.
In an effort to shed a little light on the range of outpatient surgery costs a health care consumer might have for a particular procedure, Anthem Blue Cross in association with WebMD created a cost comparison website. As a patient, you have more incentive to carefully consider the lower priced options if you have a high deductible plan.
Covered California has already awarded $43 million for public outreach and education. Seven of the recipients that received grant money are organizations that are already involved with the health care industry. Yet we need more money spent just to talk to doctors, nurses and physical therapists?
