Category: Medicaid

MEwens
Even a small gap in Medicaid coverage can have consequences for diabetics, new research suggests.
The study looked at 3,384 diabetes patients who received medical care at 50 clinics in Oregon from 2005-2007. The care was mostly free, but some recommended diagnostic tests and other services — including cholesterol screening, HbA1c testing to determine […]

MEwens
By Louise Radnofsky
The Obama administration announced plans Friday to wind down a $5 billion fund to pay for health insurance for early retirees, including the institution of a Dec. 31 deadline for employers to tap into the remaining funds.
The fund has been reimbursing companies and local-government pension funds for the cost of benefits […]

MEwens
Now that he’s not running the Medicare and Medicaid programs, Donald Berwick is taking off the gloves to attack his Washington critics.
Berwick, a pediatrician, ran the two programs until last week, when he stepped down because his recess appointment was about to run out. Senate Republicans showed no signs of confirming him, so […]

Betsy McKay
The supercommittee, seen here in September, is expected to report it has failed to reach agreement on deficit reduction.
For the health-care lobby, the collapse of the deficit-cutting supercommittee marks the beginning, not the end, of the industry’s efforts to defend its interests in the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Under the negotiations that […]

Laura Landro
Viagra Protection: A federal judge ruled yesterday that a Pfizer patent on the erectile-dysfunction treatment Viagra is valid and enforceable, protecting the blockbuster drug against generic competition until 2019, the WSJ reports. Teva Pharmaceutical had proposed a generic version of the drug, arguing that certain claims of that 2019 Pfizer patent were […]

Shirley S. Wang
Exchange Rules: The federal government has issued new rules that give states flexibility on the design of the insurance exchanges to be implemented in 2014 as part of the health-care overhaul law, the WSJ reports. The exchanges are intended to help individuals and small businesses more easily purchase private insurance. States […]

MEwens
A new research paper gives the clearest answer yet to a key question: how are people affected by gaining health insurance?
A study of people who got new Medicaid coverage shows that they received significantly more care, including preventive checks and hospital admissions, improved their financial situation, and felt better. “Having Medicaid made a […]

whcchealthinnovations
Today the United States Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit affirmed a ruling by the district court in West Virginia which sustained a disallowance of federal funding by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) against the West Virginia Medicaid Program.
The 4th Circuit Decision in West Virginia Department of Health and […]

MEwens
It’s no secret that there’s a shortage of physicians that will likely only get worse when the health-care overhaul law brings an estimated 33 million new people into the health-care system starting in 2014.
To gauge the current access situation, the government is planning a mystery shopper program that is already raising the hackles […]

whcchealthinnovations
The Office of Inspector General (OIG) has made available the Health Care Fraud Prevention and Enforcement Team (HEAT) Provider Compliance Training webcast. OIG is making the training information available to help highlight and educate providers on the the federal government’s effort to fight health care fraud and abuse.
More information about  HEAT Task Force […]