News From Around the Web
> New York governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed that $95 million be expended to digitize patient medical records in the state. He plans to use $65 million in state funds and $30 million from the Medicaid program to do so, Capital Pro reported. Article
Health Finance News
> The SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West has launched a signature campaign for two proposed ballot measures that would cap the compensation of not-for-profit hospital CEOs and how much such facilities can charge for care. The union, which represents about 150,000 hospital employees in California, has hired two political operatives who helped pass a 2012 initiative to raise the state's sales tax and levies on the wealthy. Article
> Demonstration waivers, which at one time tinkered around the edges of the Medicaid program, are now a significant piece of the program's expansion as part of the Affordable Care Act. The Obama Administration granted significant waivers to both Arkansas and Iowa to use federal dollars to purchase private insurance for Medicaid-eligible individuals, according to the news service. Michigan has its own waiver pending, while policymakers in Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Virginia are likely to also apply for waivers in order to expand coverage. Article
Health Insurance News
> Moody's, long skeptical about the Affordable Care Act's financial impact on the hospital sector, has now downgraded the outlook for health insurers. Citing uncertainty over who is actually enrolling for coverage in the state health insurance exchanges--as well as an ever-shifting regulatory environment--Moody's downgraded the insurance sector from stable to negative. Article
> The Medicare Fraud Strike Force set new records for prosecutions in fiscal year 2013, having filed 137 cases, charged 345 people, and obtained 234 guilty pleas and 46 jury trial convictions, the U.S. Department of Justice announced this week. Moreover, recent reports indicate that for every dollar the DOJ and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services spent fighting fraud, they returned an average of $8 to the government. Article
And Finally... Evidently patient care is not the priority in this hospital. Article