In a rare case, a California judge has ordered a South Pasadena plastic surgeon to spend five days in jail and pay $562,500 in penalties for improper billing of emergency-room patients. California healthcare regulators said they sued Jeannette Martello in 2011 to stop her from illegally billing insured patients for emergency-room care. Officials said Martello collected or tried to collect more from patients beyond the discounted rates their insurance companies had already paid, a practice known as balance billing. Martello aggressively pursued payment from patients by filing numerous lawsuits and taking out liens on their homes.
It's that time of year again: doctors caring for Medicare patients once more face a steep pay cut. But this time Congress is pursuing a permanent fix to the annual drama that has undermined the medical profession's confidence in the nation's premier health program. A fundamental change in the budget equation has handed lawmakers a rare opportunity to repeal Medicare's broken physician payment policy, while also freeing them from having to waive billions of dollars in impending cuts every year. Slowing health care inflation has slashed the cost of repealing the old formula, bringing it down to $116.5 billion over 10 years, according to the latest estimates.
Pharmacy chain CVS Caremark Corp and pharmaceutical distributor Cardinal Health Inc on Tuesday announced a 10-year agreement to form the largest generic drug sourcing operation in the United States, the world's biggest generic drug market. The 50-50 joint venture, which combines the generic drug purchasing power of two of the largest companies in the market for the cheaper medicines, will be operational as soon as July 1, 2014. Under the agreement, Cardinal will pay CVS $25 million on a quarterly basis for the duration of the contract, with an estimated after-tax value to CVS of $435 million.
The state's Department of Health has released hospital charges and costs for more than 1,400 medical conditions, revealing extraordinary discrepancies between hospitals across the state. The release is part of state health commissioner Nirav Shah's pledge to provide greater transparency in health care costs, and an effort to begin a conversation over how hospitals arrive at their charges. The hope, Shah said, is that consumers, insurers and employers call for more clarity and logic in a system lacking in both. As an example, the data revealed when a woman arrives at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn in need of a Caesarean section, she can expect an official charge of $8,000.
A hospital is suing an insurance company for failing to pay a hospital lien after settling with a driver injured in a car crash. Baptist Hospitals of Southeast Texas, doing business as Memorial Hermann Baptist Beaumont/Orange Hospitals, also Memorial Herman Baptist Beaumont, filed a lawsuit against Acceptance Indemnity Insurance Co. and Wilshire Insurance Co. on Dec 2 in Jefferson County District Court. The complaint states that on March 4, John Ruffin was injured in a motor vehicle crash allegedly caused by the negligence of Slayter LLC, an entity insured by Acceptance an/or Wilshire.
Patients who signed up for a credit card to pay for braces or eye surgery through CareCredit, an arm of General Electric, were given no warning of the high fees tied to the loans and racked up thousands of dollars in debt as a result, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Tuesday. The government watchdog ordered the medical financing company to pay $34.1 million for providing inadequate disclosures and engaging in deceptive enrollment practices. All of the money will go toward reimbursing the more than 1.2 million CareCredit customers who have incurred credit card penalties and fees since 2009. Eligible consumers will be notified by the company.