medical group
ALSO NOTED: WellCare faces shareholder suit; State OKs $1.8M for ex-U of Kansas CEO; and much more...
> WellCare's troubles keep mounting. The latest is a shareholder suit claiming that its directors misrepresented its financial condition. Read more...
Texas doctors fight back in MD ratings dispute
Concerned about several health insurers' decision to rate and rank physicians, a Texas medical group has decided to fire back with ratings on insurers. The Harris County Medical Society, working with... Read more...
CA accuses UnitedHealth of 'unfair' practices
The California Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) has issued a cease and desist order against UnitedHealthcare division PacifiCare of California, contending the health plan engaged in "dishonest and unfair" business practices. While the scale of the case is relatively small--it involves about 500 patients enrolled with a medical group in Redwood City--the matter is significant. It's only the second time in the DMHC's six-year history that it has issued such an order. What's …
... Read more...Provider performance varies widely across states
Care quality, access, costs and rates of avoidable hospitalizations vary widely from state to state, with a huge gap between the best and worst performers, according to new research from a health advocacy group. The Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System, which released its "State Scorecard on Health System Performance" yesterday, found that states which provide good access to care (especially access to health insurance) tend to offer a better quality of care as …
... Read more...UnitedHealth faces California legal challenges
UnitedHealth Group is facing a host of legal troubles in California, where both regulators and a large group of independent physicians are accusing the plan of financial and operational misconduct. Two of the state's agencies have begun investigating whether the health plan has been making late and inaccurate payments, as well as restricting patient access to care. The agencies are responding to a high volume of complaints alleging that the plan held up physician payments and paid claims …
... Read more...Calif. medical group among first to offer price list
A California medical group has become one of the first large U.S. practices to publish prices for common procedures. To date, a growing list of hospitals have begun to post pricing, but medical practices have not jumped on the bandwagon as enthusiastically. Torrance, CA-based HealthCare Partners Medical Group, a 500-physician primary care practice, has posted fees for 58 common procedures on its site, including chest X-rays, physical exams and flu vaccinations. The group's execs have …
... Read more...Financial turmoil at Caritas Christi
The physician group serving Boston's Caritas Christi Health Care system has replaced the acting chief of its physicians group in the midst of an accounting scandal. The 2,000-member physicians group, which auditors say overstated revenue by nearly $10 million, has been a money-loser for the system for several years. The system, which is run by the Archdiocese of Boston, has been in talks to transfer ownership of its six hospitals to Catholic hospital chain Ascension Health. As part of the …
... Read more...ALSO NOTED: SCHIP eligibility expanding; Brown & Toland chair resigns; and much more...
> States are expanding eligibility for the State Children's Health Insurance Program above 200 percent of the federal poverty level, its existing level, which should allow many more middle-class families to qualify. Article
> The chairman of 1,500-physician medical group Brown & Toland has resigned, attributing the move to a desire to spend more time with patients. …
... Read more...SPOTLIGHT: Cancer care docs face financial crisis
A group of doctors who, since 1991, have traditionally cared for poor cancer cases in California's Santa Barbara County, are still feeling lucky. They barely survived a billing dispute with the state's Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, after finding that they very nearly wouldn't get their bills paid in time to survive. The billing dispute involved a huge stack of bills unpaid by the Santa Barbara Regional Health Authority, billing intermediary for Medi-Cal for this part of the state. The Santa …
... Read more...ALSO NOTED: Oakland MDs protest pay plans;Opioids don't hasten death; and much more...
> A group of physicians at California-based Children's Hospital Oakland are battling their employer over a planned shift in pay structure and benefits. The doctors object to a new plan which will require them to join a new foundation medical group. Article
> A new study suggests that administration of opioids may not hasten death, despite a …
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