The past 35 years have seen U.S. consumers pay for a steadily growing portion of their own healthcare. In fact they’ve ponied up roughly $40 to $50 more each year, driving the average annual out-of-pocket expense from $250 in 1980 to $1,300 in 2015. 

It’s a duo of developments that are completely unrelated yet similarly themed and coincidentally timed. Within the space of hours, one prestigious U.S. hospital system gives word of layoffs and another announces wage increases.

Challenges and opportunities created by the Affordable Care Act are prompting two-thirds of companies to consider altering their pre-65 retiree health strategies over the next few years, according to a new Aon Hewitt survey.

With all the daily obstacles facing physicians these days, getting paid for the services they provide to keep patients healthy should be easy. Unfortunately, it isn't always.

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is proposing an alternative payment model under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, and it includes a bundled option that would set a target spending level for imaging services.

A battle over big bucks is looming as major private health insurers in some states seek to aggressively hike premiums for plans they sold through Affordable Care Act exchanges. The companies angling for the biggest increases cite ballooning costs incurred by new enrollees. Consumer groups are preparing to push state insurance regulators to force the carriers to scale back their requests.

Healthcare providers that successfully transition to the “New Health Economy” will collect more of their patients’ bills. They will complete the collections more quickly, too, enabling them to better manage cash flow and strip administrative costs to the bone.

Is flat-rate pricing the wave of the future for outpatient radiology? One large practice in the Midwest is going to find out.