Highly paid health execs | The coming crisis in senior care

Of 25 top earners working in healthcare, the most modestly compensated industry executive made $6.6 million in 2018.

Ten years from now, more than 14 million middle-class Americans will be elderly, mobility-limited and in need of more healthcare services and specialized senior housing than they’ll be able to afford.

Medicare’s site-neutral policy, which pays outpatient hospital sites like they’re independent doctors’ offices, is turning out to be as unpopular in practice as it was in theory—as least among hospitals.

Seven years from now, Medicare Part A will only be able to reimburse hospitals 89% of costs for hospital stays and related services. Twenty years later, the portion CMS can pay will fall to 77%.

Hospitals in the sixth most populous state stand to save $1.4 billion by collectively adding about 20,000 nurses.

A study backing a bill that would greatly increase nurse staffing in Illinois hospitals by mandating certain nurse-to-patient ratios has drawn heat from the Illinois Health and Hospital Association (IHA).

More than 90% of healthcare consumers were surprised by a medical bill in 2018, while nearly three-quarters were confused by a bill’s content and more than half could not pay a bill in full if it totaled more than $1,000.

Both low- and high-income women experience significant delays in breast cancer diagnosis and treatment when they’re switched from affordable to high-deductible health plans (HDHPs), according to a study published in Health Affairs.