Steven Chang, a former Stanford resident now at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, reserves a particular passion for Epocrates Rx, free software created by a San Mateo company that provides clinicians with prescription drug and formulary information such as dosage levels, contraindications, and insurer co-payment amounts. But when he tried to combine that passion with the iPhone he hit a virtual wall. In addition to preferring the iPhone, Chang was tired of juggling multiple devices as he moved around the clinic. Thus began a digital crusade by the 30-year-old primary-care physician.
Five more hospitals have joined Connecticut's Charter Oak Health Plan, expanding a provider network that has been criticized by some lawmakers as inadequate. The newly enrolled hospitals include Yale-New Haven Hospital, Bridgeport Hospital, Greenwich Hospital, Saint Francis Care in Hartford and the University of Connecticut Health Center/John Dempsey Hospital Farmington. They join the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven and Saint Mary's Hospital in Waterbury.
Federal regulators are balking at a Massachusetts proposal to increase Medicaid spending by up to $1 billion a year over the next three years, prompting the state to request another two-week extension of its healthcare funding package. The federal payments, which are crucial for keeping the state's landmark health insurance law afloat, were set to expire June 30. But the state has received three extensions, and a fourth would postpone the deadline for reaching an agreement until Aug. 25. At stake in the negotiations between state and federal officials is more than $11 billion in federal funds over three years, money earmarked for dozens of healthcare programs in Massachusetts.
Changes are coming to "private fee for service" plans, a fast-growing and controversial type of Medicare coverage. Private fee for service plans are a type of privately-run Medicare alternative known as Medicare Advantage. Like other Advantage plans, PFFS plans wrap coverage of physician and hospital services in one package, sometimes with additional benefits such as vision care. But unlike other Advantage plans, they don't have a network of doctors and hospitals beyond which coverage may be limited. That has been a big selling point to beneficiaries, but that aspect is changing.
Washington, DC, officials are enforcing new guidelines for prescription drugs for thousands of Medicaid patients, and many doctors are complaining that it is more difficult for sick people to receive some medicines and that some people's health is being endangered. A new pharmacy benefits contractor for the District has began requiring many patients to have prescriptions for some pain medication and gastrointestinal drugs preapproved by District Medicaid officials. The result has been delays of several days for some patients to receive medicine.
Holy Cross Hospital's announcement that it hopes to build a hospital in Germantown, MD, is just the latest example of a baby boomer-fueled building frenzy sweeping the healthcare industry in Maryland's Montgomery County. Over the past several years, all five of Montgomery's major medical centers have decided to expand, upgrade their facilities or build new ones. What's happening in the county mirrors a national trend, fueled by concerns that aging baby boomers will put new demands on the healthcare system and that old hospital buildings can no longer accommodate changing and complex medical technologies, experts say.