Health Care Reform

The Self-Insurance Insurance Institute of America Inc. (SIIA) is blasting allegations by federal regulators and others who contend that employer flight to the self-insured market could leave insured plans stuck with the sickest employees.

Staffing industry representatives are asking Congress to exempt temporary workers from employer health insurance requirements set to take effect in 2014 or at least lighten the load.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported Thursday nearly 20.5 million people with Medicare reviewed their health status at a free annual wellness visit or received other preventive services with no deductible or cost sharing this year.

Analysts at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Menlo Park, Calif., have described the stage of exchange development in each state in a new collection of state exchange program profiles.

These hospitals, mostly in the South, may be at higher risk of financial failure, too. That's because the nation's new health care law punishes bad care by withholding some money, says the lead author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs.

Nebraska will not enact a health care exchange mandated by the federal health care overhaul until officials know for sure whether the measure is constitutional, Gov. Dave Heineman said Monday.

Despite lingering health reform uncertainty and a still-sluggish economy, brokers remain oddly optimistic about their own individual futures but worried about the industry.

The national average individual market health insurance premium per person, per month is $215. In Massachusetts it's $400.