ALSO NOTED: Delays for Mass. uninsured; Calif. prison health too expensive; and much more...

> More than 100,000 uninsured workers will be unable to sign up for new subsidized health plans in Massachusetts by the nominal October 1 deadline, because there hasn't been enough time to get systems in place since the universal coverage law was passed in April. The delay bodes ill for full implementation of the law by July 1, 2007. Story

> California taxpayers are paying tens of millions of dollars too much for healthcare provided to prison inmates, state auditors have found. Healthcare is costing $7,000 per prisoner, a year for 170,000 inmates. The Kaiser Family Foundation says the average California worker is insured for less than $4,000 a year. Story, plus a previous FierceHealthcare article underscoring Kaiser's conclusions.

> A Toledo osteopath overbilled Ohio almost $300,000 in workers' comp claims over six years. Story

> Yet another provider-payer relationship falls through, this time in Geneva, NY, where Excellus Blue Cross Blue Shield has called off negotiations with the Finger Lakes Medical Associates. Story

> A report from the Commonwealth Fund outlines a vision of  a "uniquely American high-performance health system."

And Finally… Blow your germs away! Buffalo Bioblower Technologies, a company spun off from research done at the University of Buffalo, has developed an air sterilization system that can literally tear apart those nasty antibiotic-resistant bugs. Developed initially for the Defense Department, the blower annihilated 99.9999 percent of an anthrax-like bacterium. The company has received a grant from New York State to develop a prototype for healthcare use. Article

Post a comment