The historic result of the 2016 election ushers in a new set of challenges, opportunities, and unknowns for Nevada businesses at the federal and state levels. Here, at home, Nevada bucked the national trend and once again gave Democrats control of both houses of the legislature. The result is two new legislative majorities, along with a host of freshman chairs and freshman … [Read more...]
Healthcare Check-Up: Nevada Works to Deliver Health Amid Shortages
At this point in the year, the initial stages of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) have already been implemented. The results show that, while the state has moved forward in many healthcare arenas, Nevada still has a long road ahead. More Nevadans Covered Data showed that during the recent enrollment period, 72,000 Nevadans applied for and enrolled in health insurance plans … [Read more...]
Medicaid Expansion Pressures Nevada’s Poor, Doctors, State Budget
Addition of 281,000 to state dole creating long waits for doctor openings Last year, almost 25,000 Nevadans found their health plans canceled, thanks to the so-called Affordable Care Act. The ACA also caused a dramatic increase in the price of individual insurance plans — with Nevada having the largest premium increases in the entire country, according to a national study … [Read more...]
Union Members Wake Up: And Smell the Reality
If you or a family member belong to a union, you might not know that the dues deducted from your hard-earned paycheck are funding causes you oppose or supporting groups with views exactly opposite of yours. Even if you do know it, is there anything you can do to stop it? Two recent Supreme Court decisions show that there might be some hope in controlling unions’ out-of-control … [Read more...]
Industry Focus: Insurance
Despite constant changes in legislation and the additions of new regulations, the insurance industry strives to be a consistent resource for business owners and individuals alike. Recently, insurance executives across the state met at the Las Vegas offices of City National Bank to discuss the challenges in their industry. Connie Brennan, publisher of Nevada Business … [Read more...]
Hospitals in Nevada: An Industry in Transition
Some things that don’t change in healthcare: the importance of patient outcome, patient experience, patient compliance and patient ability to pay for services. Other things in healthcare are changing rapidly: bio-engineered medications to treat specific patients, imaging devices take the place of exploratory surgery, the model for healthcare, the way hospitals are reimbursed … [Read more...]
Health Insurance Update: The Real Cost of Healthcare
The healthcare industry, over many years, has been undergoing a gradual but major shift in how insurers pay providers. Against that backdrop, the state began implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) mandates, several of which the federal government has delayed or amended since. The ACA or Obamacare, as it has become known, has caused additional … [Read more...]
First Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program Coming to Nevada
Nevada's first osteopathic fellowship program has the green light. The American Osteopathic Association approved Nathan Adelson Hospice for a Hospice and Palliative Medicine Program. The program is a collaboration between the hospice and Touro University Nevada. This is a first-of-its-kind fellowship in Nevada and one of only 11 in the nation, according to a recent statement … [Read more...]
Healthcare in Nevada: Prognosis Encouraging
Nevada’s 2013 healthcare checkup reveals an industry under an unprecedented combination of pressures – little surprise there – but also one that is holding its own, moving quickly to adapt, gearing up to provide the best patient care possible, and looking confidently to the future. “Nevada’s healthcare industry is in a state of flux as a result of the changes occurring on a … [Read more...]
Why It’s Morally Wrong to Expand Medicaid: Government should protect property, not redistribute it
Why is stealing wrong? Is it wrong because it’s illegal? Or is stealing wrong because individuals have a God-given or natural right to their own property? To some people, that’s like asking, “Which came first: the chicken or the egg?” — in other words, they think the answer is unknowable. But there’s an essential difference here: Unlike the chicken-and-egg question, we … [Read more...]
Getting It Done: The 2013 Legislative Session
The 77th regular legislative session starts in Carson City on February 4, 2013. What major issues will be coming down the pipeline in 2013? How will issues discussed and laws passed in the upcoming session affect Nevada in the future? What part will a freshman Legislature play and what challenges will lawmakers face? The Budget One of the biggest issues facing every … [Read more...]
Healthcare Check-Up: Meeting the New Challenges
There’s no shortage of uncertainty swirling around Nevada’s healthcare industry: from the challenges of the local and national economies to insurance regulations and the implications – even the contours and very existence -- of Obamacare. The outlook, however, is decidedly optimistic. And with good reason. “One of the advantages of healthcare is that it’s been projected … [Read more...]
What the Obamacare Decision Means for State Policymakers: Court gives states the option of financing congressional scheme
Few decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court have captured the public interest as did its June opinion in NFIB v. Sebelius. This long-anticipated ruling was widely perceived as the final judicial test for one of the most controversial acts of Congress in decades: the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as Obamacare. The challenge centered on whether Congress has the … [Read more...]
