A.M. Vitals: WellPoint to Increase Primary-Care Reimbursement
Paying More for Primary Care: Beginning in the summer, WellPoint will increase reimbursement for primary-care services — offering those physicians a fee increase of around 10% with the chance of additional payments that could bolster what they receive for covered patients by as much as 50% — in an attempt to lower acute-care costs, the WSJ reports. Additional payment and support for primary care could add as much as one to two percentage points to WellPoint’s primary-care spending — now about 6% to 8% of some $100 billion in annual claims, the paper says.
Oral HPV Rates: About 7% of Americans aged 14 to 69 have an oral infection with human papillomavirus, or HPV, USA Today reports. The study, published in JAMA, also finds oral HPV infection is more common in men than in women, and that infection is associated with oral sex rather than more casual contact such as kissing, the paper says.
Scrushy Poised for Release: HealthSouth Corp. founder Richard Scrushy, who was convicted of bribery in 2006, is being released from prison to a halfway house in Texas in the next few weeks, the WSJ reports. Scrushy will still have to deal with the fallout from […]
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