News From Around The Web
> A company that recently lost a $200 million contract to manage claims processing for Louisiana's Medicaid program can move forward against the state for wrongful termination, a federal judge ruled. Maryland-based Client Network Services Inc. lost the pact after a federal grand jury began probing how it was awarded, The Washington Post reported. Article
> Republican lawmakers in New Hampshire are balking at unilaterally expanding Medicaid, and have instead suggested premium support to help low-income residents to purchase insurance on the state's health insurance exchange, according to the Concord Monitor. Article
> U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, a Pennsylvania Democrat, has asked that state's Republican governor to expand its Medicaid program under the Affordable Care Act, according to The Delaware County Daily Times. Casey warned Gov. Tom Corbett in a letter that rejecting expansion while negotiating changes to the program with the federal government would penalize people who would be eligible for coverage in January once expansion kicks in. Article
Provider News
> Medicare accountable care organizations should involve additional risk in their next three-year cycles, penalizing the ACOs when they don't meet spending targets, according to members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), MedPage Today reported. Article
Healthcare IT News
> The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, despite previously proclaiming it would not conduct external ICD-10 testing, may be changing its tune, MedPage Today reports. In the wake of the ongoing HealthCare.gov debacle, Robert Tennant, a senior policy adviser at the Medical Group Management Association, told MedPage that CMS was "at least willing to revisit the issue of testing," at an ICD-10 stakeholder collaboration meeting earlier this week. Article
And Finally...Hospital assists in a 14-hour search for drugs--in a single person. Article