medicaid patients

A group of 24 Tennessee hospitals, including Vanderbilt Medical Center, is suing the Department of Health and Human Services to recoup $200 million in payments they say they are owed for treating low-income Medicaid patients. Lawyers for the group say the government reneged on an earlier commitment to pay back the hospitals for care that had been provided to low-income patients who did not qualify for TennCare, the state's program for the disadvantaged. The hospitals say they're being …

> Partners Healthcare said Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women's Hospital posted sharp jumps in profit this year. Article

> New York's Westchester Medical Center says it has turned a surplus after years of struggling. …

A plan to move thousands of Florida Medicaid patients to managed care goes to Washington for approval this week. Florida officials said disagreements between the state and CMS over hospital reimbursements may cause a delay in the implementation of the scheme. On Wednesday, Florida released details of its ambitious pilot project which will move patients from its state-run program to a market-based alternative. The experiment will see Medicaid enrollees in Broward and Duval counties moved …

The state of Tennessee officially agreed to allow the state's Medicaid patients to participate in an ambitious electronic medical records project. The project, which is being sponsored by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, would create what is believed to be the largest network in the nation. The addition of 700,000 TennCare members is a key milestone in the project.

Officially headed by BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee subsidiary SharedHealth, the network is considered a major …

There was controversy after it was revealed that officials in Georgia are working on a compromise deal which would give the state more flexibility in how it spends its Medicaid funds. Under the proposed plan, residents participating in the state's Medicaid program would pay more for prescription drugs. They would also be required to pay co-pays for the first time. Governor Sonny Perdue's proposal came as a shock to many local observers who said the details of the plan had been negotiated …

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee said it has signed a deal with Cerner which will see the company develop a database of patient medical records for its TennCare members. BCBS says it will add all of its commercial insurance and Medicaid patients later this year, putting about 2.8 million people in the system, making it the largest in the US. The company also said it is creating a subsidiary to market the system to plans in other states, yet another indication that Cerner may be the company to watch in healthcare.

- see this story from the Nashville Business Journal