The health industry is creating the medFICO score to judge patient's ability to pay their hospital bill. The medFICO score could debut as early as this summer in some hospitals. It is already being questioned by consumer advocacy groups that fear it will be checked before patients are treated.
Phillipsburg, NJ-based Warren Hospital has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle Medicare fraud claims. Federal prosecutors claimed the hospital was overbilling the government for the treatment of patients whose needs did not meet typical Medicare parameters.
A plan among Wake County, NC hospitals to join a statewide treatment effort has sparked a turf war in Johnston County, where the project is seen as a way for large hospitals to siphon away lucrative heart patients.
The total value of Minnesota hospitals' community contributions was $2.7 billion last year, an increase over $2.2 billion contributed in 2005, according to the the Minnesota Hospital Association. The contributions include $432 million in uncompensated care costs in 2006, about a 23 percent increase from the same period of 2005.
Although Congress will likely put up enough money to keep Georgia's PeachCare program running through most of next year, plans to dramatically expand the program that provides health insurance to low-income children are dead.
Graceworks Health Clinic has opened its doors to serve residents in Williamson County, TN. The clinic has been created to serve the working uninsured in the county, and payments will be determined on a sliding scale.