medicaid patients
ALSO NOTED: Microsoft renames, upgrades health IT products; CT advocates fight for translation budget; and much more...
> Microsoft is renaming--and over time, upgrading--its healthcare IT products. Read more...
Judge dismisses IL conspiracy suit against MD groups
An Illinois judge has booted an antitrust suit brought against two Chicago-area physician groups, which claimed that they'd conspired to get rid of Medicaid patients in an effort to force the State... Read more...
CA offers funds to hospitals hit by King-Drew closure
When troubled Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital closed this August, patients in south Los Angeles were dispersed to hospitals across the region. Because King-Drew served a poor neighborhood,... Read more...
Trend: Large dental care access gap emerging
With dental fees going up, and huge numbers of consumers lacking dental insurance, adequate dental care is beginning to be out of reach for many lower-middle-class and poor families--and a strain for... Read more...
Illinois doctors fight Medicaid HMO plan
Providers are steamed up over an Illinois proposal to force some of the state's Medicaid patients to enroll in HMOs, possibly forcing some out of their care. Because the plans haven't been popular... Read more...
IL suit says private clinics diverted poor to EDs
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed a lawsuit against two Chicago-area medical practices, contending that the two refused primary care to Medicaid patients in an effort to get them into their higher-priced affiliated emergency departments. The suit also charges that the clinics, Carle Clinic Association of Urbana, IL, and Christie Clinic of Champaign, IL, wanted to discourage Medicaid patients from visiting their facilities. According to the suit, the two clinics now employ …
... Read more...Readers talk back on hospital innovation
My last column--in which I offered some comments on hospital innovations by physician-author Dr. Richard Reece--spurred some interesting feedback from readers. So this time around, I thought share some of the …
... Read more...Trend: Medicaid programs offer P4P incentives
A new survey by the Commonwealth Fund has concluded that more than half of U.S. states have begun rewarding doctors for delivering quality care to Medicaid patients. What's more, almost 85 percent of Medicaid programs plan to have pay-for-performance programs in place within five years, many of which rely on improved use of health information technology, researchers said. The study suggests that states are moving much more quickly than Medicare administrators, analysts say. CMS is …
... Read more...Nursing homes seek profitable rehab patients
Eager to capture better-paying short-term patients, nursing homes have begun aggressively renovating and adding features to make themselves a palatable alternative to hospitals and rehabilitation facilities. They're adding bright colors, Internet cafés, beauty parlors and massage therapists, libraries and more to compete against more traditional short-term rehab players. Most of these patients come in to recuperate and get rehab therapy after knee- and hip-joint procedures, though …
... Read more...SC program seeks to lower Medicaid drug costs
Researchers at the South Carolina College of Pharmacy (SCCP) are kicking off a program designed to improve drug therapy and lower costs for Medicaid patients diagnosed with cancer, mental health issues and HIV. Over the next two years, SCCP will hire and deploy a team of clinical pharmacist educators, whose job will be to work with physicians to fine-tune these patients' drug regimen. SCCP was awarded $2 million from the state's Department of Health and Human Services to launch the …
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