Employer Healthcare Strategies

As America's elderly population swells in number, the need for compassionate, patient-centered care is increasingly necessary. In order to serve tens of millions of elderly adults, formal service providers and facilities would need to change fundamentally, and increase in number by an enormous margin.

Instead, the personal health care industry seems to be accepting help from a non-traditional source: the informal caregiver.

America has a physician shortage. By 2025, the shortfall is projected to total 90,000 fewer physicians than needed. This health crisis can be felt across the country, but is most acute in underserved rural areas.

While there are many partial solutions in the works, one may come from an unexpected source: immigration.

A proposed bill would transform the $130 Billion program, making psychiatric care much more available and affordable.

The bill passed the US House of Representatives with bi-partisan support, and now waits for the Senate to vote on it in the Fall.

ACA-associated healthcare price hikes have been a hot news item for some time now. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, this isn't going to change anytime soon.

The forecast for 2017 is higher healthcare premiums, as the ACA's temporary reinsurance program comes to an end, and insurers adjust to the reality of a new American healthcare system.

Between 2013 and 2015, Arkansas and Kentucky extended access to health care, Texas did not. Harvard kept track of the results for 9,000 low-income citizens during this time.

The citizens of Arkansas and Kentucky reported better access to health care and the quality thereof. These patients were also 5% more likely to be in "excellent health", compared to Texas members of the study.

Today, 9 in 10 Americans have health insurance. This is a higher rate than the country has ever seen before. But there are still millions of citizens without insurance, and 2017 could lead to choppy waters for the Affordable Care Act.

The ACA has helped lots of previously uninsured Americans gain health coverage. But one of the side effects is that it's harder for everyone to get an appointment with a doctor.

The University of Wisconsin used "Secret Shoppers" to try to get appointments with 700 doctors on Blue Cross and Blue Shield directories.

In 70% of cases, no appointment was available.

In the years since it became law, the Affordable Care Act has been subject to much study and criticism.

On July 11, the Journal of the American Medical Association published the largest review of the ACA yet, and their findings largely positive.

In the last days of the Obama administration, people around the world continue to scrutinize how well the Affordable Care Act is working.

Most of Obamacare's goals are noble, but are presented with great challenge when catalyzed by real world healthcare systems. The Administration calls upon doctors for feedback to better understand the implications of Obamacare's incentives.