Original estimate by CBO was Ten Billion In a report released by HHS, subsidies offered under the Affordable Care Act could top $16 Billion this year which is far greater than the original $10 Billion projected by the CBO. The…

Coverage will take effect August 15 Governor Maggie Hassan (D) announced Monday, June 16, 2014, that eligible adults can start applying for Medicaid starting July 1, 2014. Also reported in the June 17, 2014 NAHU Newswire is an article that…

Claims it could hold down premiums The health insurance industry has called for a change that would allow subsidies for individuals purchasing catastrophic plans. Currently catastrophic plans are not eligible for subsidies. The thought is that young and healthy people…

Propose increase spending to hire doctors and nurses In response to the recent whistle blowing on delayed care for veterans, the Senate has proposed a bill to authorize five hundred million dollars to hire more doctors and nurses. If veterans…

Claims they can no longer measure the impact of may ACA provisions In a footnote, the CBO said it will track effects of exchange subsidies and Medicaid expansion but tracking other changes to existing federal programs is not possible. Also…

Probe called to investigate Senate Republicans have requested HHS Inspector General, Daniel Levinson to investigate if there was a misrepresentation by the agency to verify incomes and issue appropriate subsides for plans purchased through the exchange. Concerns continued to increase…

Some appeals take more than two years to be cleared The House is looking into the manner in which Medicare Fraud is investigated. The current process allows auditors to flag cases and collect penalty payments prior to an appeals process.…

No internal system to verify income in federal marketplace The lead story in the May 19, 2014 NAHU Newswire is a story that ran on the front page of the Washington Post Saturday. Unnamed sources cite: "the government may be…

Carriers can set limits for procedures In an attempt to control costs, HHS has approved cost control measures that will allow insurance carriers to limit how much they pay for certain procedures. Patients may be surprised by this when they…

There may be duplicate enrollments in the system In a story recently published in the New York Times, most people who selected plans under the ACA are paying their initial premiums. Of the eight million that signed up, it is…

Reveals healthcare communication weak link A simulated cyberattack organized by the health data consortium HITrust was held April first. The attacks were targeted at medical devices, health information systems, health information exchanges and HealthCare.gov. The test revealed that communication across…

Heartbleed bug potential threat to data security Over the weekend, various news agencies were reporting on the Heartbleed bug and the vulnerability to a security breach on the healthcare.gov website. Users of the site are being urged to change their…