reimbursement rates news from FierceHealthcare
News
Study: Cardiologists seeing more patients for less pay
Cardiologists are on something of a treadmill; they're seeing steadily more patients and and performing more tests, but their reimbursement rates are falling for both Medicare beneficiaries and... Read more...
WI passes hospital tax
Wisconsin has passed a new hospital tax that, despite involving new expenses, should ultimately benefit the state's facilities, according to the state's hospital trade group. Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle... Read more...
Ingenix database to be shut down
Andrew Cuomo has had enough of patients paying too much in reimbursement payments because of conflicts of interest. The New York Attorney General confirmed that Cigna Corp. will join a nationwide... Read more...
California providers sue to stop Medicaid cuts
A broad coalition of California providers and Medicaid recipients has filed suit to block a planned 5 percent cut in Medicaid rates scheduled to go into effect March 1. The group, which includes... Read more...
Emergency department doctors sue California
Frustrated by low reimbursement--and the threat of further cuts--a group of emergency department doctors have filed a class-action lawsuit against the state of California. The suit contends that... Read more...
Coalition files suit to block CA Medi-Cal cuts
Nobody's happy when the state cuts reimbursement rates for a program that already doesn't pay so well. But when California threatened to cut rates 10 percent for Medi-Cal, its program for the poor, a... Read more...
BCBS of MA plans reimbursement changes
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the dominant health insurer in the state, is making a major change in the way it pays its physicians. It's moving from fee-for-service payments to offer... Read more...
Leavitt: Medicare formula isn't working
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt has come out and admitted that Medicare's "sustainable growth rate" formula used to determine physician compensation is more or less broken. In a recent meeting... Read more...
ALSO NOTED: Heparin overdose at Cedars-Sinai; Health Net loses CN contract; and much more...
> A group of patients, including two infants born to actor Dennis Quaid, are recovering from a substantial heparin overdose administered earlier this month at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los... Read more...
Trend: Physicians dispensing drugs in offices
While it's far from an established practice, physicians are increasingly beginning to sell prescription drugs in their offices. Right now, only 10 percent of U.S. physicians do so, but the number... Read more...
