The Bush administration is threatening to veto any legislation that cuts payments to private insurers as a way to give physicians more money when treating Medicare patients. Beginning in 2008, physicians face a 10 percent pay cut when treating the elderly and disabled. If that occurs, some doctors say they will quit seeing new Medicare patients.
The Stark legislation, named after Congressman Fortney "Pete" Stark, bans physicians from "self referral." In a recent interview, Stark himself lamented that he had ever made his legislative intrusion into medical practices, and if he could would strip down the fuzzy language so the law simply forbids kickbacks.
Rural family physicians and their patients may benefit from a recently announced Federal Communications Commission's Rural Health Care Pilot Program. The initiative will allocate $417 million for the construction of regional broadband telehealth networks, and aims to increase patient access to acute, primary and preventive healthcare.
Earlier in 2007, the state of Oklahoma used its limited authority to fine Humana almost as much as the federal government has fined all Medicare Advantage players combined. The state felt that it had uncovered serious abuses that deserved far harsher punishment from the federal government, and now frustrated state commissioners are increasingly calling for reforms.
University of Iowa Hospitals CEO Donna Katen-Bahensky will become the president and CEO of the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics. Katen-Bahensky, 54, has been CEO of U of I Hospitals since 2002.