More than 24,000 employees of Prospect Medical Holdings in Connecticut may have had some of their personal information exposed during the recent cyberattack. Prospect notified employees and the state Attorney General’s office of the breach on Friday afternoon. Prospect also told the Attorney General’s office that 63 Connecticut residents who were patients at Prospect hospitals in California may have had their information breached, including patient names, health insurance and financial information.
Discrepancies in healthcare payments in the city of Chicopee were addressed in a news conference Tuesday. An insurance audit report detailed the process of health and dental premium reconciliation after it was discovered that payments to the city’s insurance provider were made for retired or deceased former employees. Mayoral candidate Delmarina Lopez had called for an audit into the city’s health insurance premium payouts saying hundreds of thousands of dollars were mistakenly paid.
Some of Michiana’s biggest health care providers, including Beacon Health System and South Bend Clinic, have recently stopped accepting new patients who rely on Medicaid for their health insurance.
It wasn’t clear exactly why Beacon and South Bend Clinic have made this decision. Officials with both health systems declined to be interviewed for this story.
It’s been less than a week since the Governor announced proposed changes to the way hospitals are reimbursed by Medicaid.
The hospitals will be taxed more but they’ll also be drawing down significantly more federal dollars. Neshoba General Hospital CEO Lee McCall says the changes to Medicaid reimbursements couldn’t come at a better time.
Rising health care costs are a major concern for most Americans. A Pew poll from earlier this year found 64 percent of Americans consider health care affordability a "very big problem in our country today." That includes majorities of both parties—54 percent of Republicans and 73 percent of Democrats. Our country may struggle with division and polarization, but it's clear that health care is an area where bipartisan reform is possible.