Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Investors Plow $7.5M Into Health Insurance Comparison Tool
HealthCare.com likes to describe itself as the "Kayak of healthcare." On Tuesday, the Miami-based private online marketplace for insurance announced it closed a Series A funding round of $7.5 million from the owners of Priceline.com and Kayak, among other brands including most recently, OpenTable. The funding announcement comes as the U.S. government鈥檚 Healthcare.gov begins its second year of enrolling patients under Obamacare. Vargas said HealthCare.com鈥檚 healthcare insurance comparison tool, released this fall, allows people to compare 75,000 state and federal exchange plans as well as off-exchange plans (but it will not include subsidies available through Healthcare.gov). 鈥淕oing forward, we are going to be adding other comparison features into other products such as Medicare and dental insurance,鈥 Vargas said in an interview with the Miami Herald Tuesday morning. (Dahlberg, 11/11)
Welcome to open enrollment season. That time of year when you get e-mail after e-mail from your employer reminding you of all the changes you need to make to your benefits. Of all the decisions that need to be made around now, one that often gets looked over is the chance to open a health savings account. (Marte, 11/11)
So, you're thinking you might like to check out one of those inexpensive new tests that would give you some insight into, say, the health implications of your ethnic heritage. It may, incidentally, turn up findings you may or may not want -- say, on your Alzheimer's disease risk, or your risk of developing lung, breast or skin cancer. ... Although the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 bars the use of genetic information for health insurance coverage decisions, it does not do so when it comes to life insurance, disability insurance or long-term care insurance. (Healy, 11/11)
In-network鈥 and 鈥渙ut-of-network鈥 鈥 for people with health insurance, those words mean one thing: money. If you don鈥檛 want to get charged extra, you get your treatment done in-network. It sounds straightforward, but sometimes it doesn鈥檛 work out that way, even when patients think they鈥檙e playing by the rules. Jeffrey Craig Hopper, a probate attorney in Austin, Texas, knows all about following the rules. Still, accidents happen. Last June he was coaching a Little League practice session when an errant baseball smashed into his face. (Feibel, 11/11)