Healthcare Regulations

Gearing up for new rules requiring all residents to carry health insurance, Massachusetts has officially approved a group of policies tailored to be accessible to the uninsured. Starting in May, a total of 28 different plans will be offered by seven insurers. Participating health insurers include Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, ConnectiCare, Fallon Community Health Plan, Health New England, Neighborhood Health Plan and Tufts Health Plan. Monthly …

While it's all well and good that Massachusetts has negotiated a low monthly premium for its new bare-bones health plan, the initial numbers publicized by state officials are deceptive, according to the nonprofit Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR). The group, which describes itself as nonpartisan, says that the low monthly premiums touted by state officials seriously understate the actual costs patients will face.

While the state's basic plan comes in at a modest …

The results are in from Indiana's first in-depth look at medical errors made in its hospitals and healthcare facilities. The Indiana Medical Error Reporting System, which requires facilities to share information on 27 "serious reportable events," completed its first full year last year. According to the data reported to the state, 77 serious medical errors occurred at the state's 287 hospitals and healthcare facilities last year. Seventy-two of the 77 errors occurred at hospitals, …

The U.S. Senate is holding hearings this week on a bill which would give the FDA the ability to approve generic versions of biologic drugs. If approved, the measure could potentially save the federal health programs $71 billion over the next ten years, according to some estimates. To date, the FDA has said that it doesn't have the power to approve generic versions of these very expensive drugs, which include insulin, human growth hormone and therapies that treat multiple sclerosis. (It …

After negotiations with the state's health insurance plans, Massachusetts government leaders say that buying in to new basic health coverage products could now cost as little as $175 per month. The bare-bones plans, which were created as an affordable offering for the uninsured, would include such necessities as outpatient care, ED visits and prescription drugs. Now, a state panel overseeing the law's implementation will vote this month on whether to approve offerings by seven health …

A Kaiser transplant surgeon is under investigation due to allegations that he purposely hastened a patient's death in order to harvest his organs for transplants. San Luis Obispo police and the Medical Board of California are examining whether Dr. Hootan Roozrokh gave high doses of a strong painkiller to Ruben Navarro, the patient. Another surgeon--Dr. Arturo Martinez--is also under investigation.

Navarro was in a long-term care facility when he was found unresponsive and taken to …

State and local officials in California plan to announce today the filing of a bill which would make it a crime to dump patients on the street. The bill comes in the wake of a large scale investigation of patient dumping by the region's hospitals, targeting at 55 cases of sick homeless patients who were allegedly left on the street on Los Angeles' skid row.

To date, authorities have had a hard time building cases against the hospitals targeted, given that there's no California law …

After studying the problem at length, officials with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) are planning to ask the state's hospitals to publicly disclose their inpatient infection rates. To kick off the effort, the state is spending $1 million researching the scope of the problem, hiring a panel of 50 experts to survey the state's hospitals as to their current infection rates and prevention strategies. By June the team, which has surveyed 73 hospitals so far, expects to …

In a suit bringing more attention to an already-hot legal battle, Blue Shield of California has been sued by a college student whose coverage was dropped after he was hospitalized. The student has asked a Los Angeles judge to issue an injunction making the health plan stop canceling policies after people get sick and submit claims, as well as reinstate his coverage. In filing his complaint, the student only adds another stone to the pile falling on health insurers in California, many of …

After a year of back-and-forth, a group of U.S. senators have reached a compromise on a bill offering "mental health parity" to health plan enrollees who have mental health coverage. While the details are still under discussion, generally speaking the bill would require health insurance plans with a mental health option to cover mental diseases the same way they do physical diseases, including reimbursement, co-payments, deductibles and limits on physician visits. The bill is being …