Mayo Clinic has reached a settlement with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's office that makes certain patients presumptively eligible for charity care and limits how the health system collects on medical debt. The Rochester-based nonprofit healthcare provider, which denied wrongdoing and disputed the attorney general's findings, will no longer collect debts through lawsuits other than in "extraordinary circumstances," according to Ellison's office. The agreement between the health care provider and the state's chief enforcer of consumer protection laws ended a two-year investigation into allegations that Mayo Clinic was suing to collect on debts from patients who were eligible for charity care.
While legislators from each political party have their own perspective on how the negotiations behind the faltering budget plan to address the imminent $118 million Medicaid funding shortfall have gone down, health care providers and those in the forest industry say they are not focused on the “he said, she said.”
As Congress works to pass a stopgap funding bill this week, Wisconsin health advocates are keeping an eye on several extensions for Medicare programs providing telehealth services and rural hospital funding.
The funding bill House Republican leaders released on Saturday does not avert cuts for doctors who treat Medicare patients — a blow to Republicans who had pushed for the changes that also could risk alienating members whose support will be needed to pass the legislation.
Rep. Greg Murphy (R-N.C.) worries that if nothing is done to curb Medicare payment cuts to physicians, doctors will no longer be able to afford to run their own private practices.