A federal judge today delayed the release of an unredacted copy of the Highmark-West Penn Allegheny Health System affiliation agreement after WPAHS attorneys asked for reconsideration of a Dec. 29 ruling that it be made publicly available. Judge Arthur J. Schwab has told WPAHS legal counsel to show attorneys for UPMC and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette the redacted portions before noon on Monday and see if the parties can agree on what portions can be unsealed. WPAHS argued the only way to truly keep doctors' earnings confidential is to keep sealed the entire portion of the agreement at issue.
Hospitals and other health care providers in Maryland are receiving a total of $2 million in federal money to reimburse them for investments they made in new electronic record systems, state officials said Thursday. The grants were the first in a series being offered in coming years. They were only available to providers who have a certain number of Medicaid patients and already switched to the new system, said Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown.
A team of researchers in Ohio have found an interesting way to explore how Medicaid coverage impacts the prognosis of a patient diagnosed with cancer. Their study, to be published next month in the journal Cancer, finds that while Medicaid coverage prior to a cancer diagnosis does correlate with a better outcome than no coverage at all, patients in the entitlement program have worse survival rates than Americans with private insurance, or no insurance at all.
Iowa is poised to build a health information exchange (HIE) that will make it possible for even small rural medical practices to share patient information. Officials expect the HIE, which will be managed and implemented by ACS, a Xerox Company, to be fully operational by year's end.
Doctors Without Borders goes where others don't. And that often gets its staff in trouble. On December 29, two staff members were killed in Somalia. The latest news from South Sudan is especially worrying. Some 130 staff at the Doctors Without Borders clinic in Pibor, South Sudan, are missing, according to a statement from the group. Two Doctors Without Borders medical facilities have been targeted, and the independent medical humanitarian organization has been forced to temporarily suspend its much needed medical activities.
A state commission has released a report that could mean huge changes in the government-owned hospitals in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, but it's unclear how quickly the Legislature will act on the group's recommendations. On Wednesday, healthcare experts were still digesting the 42-page report released Tuesday by the Commission on Review of Taxpayer Funded Hospital Districts, which recommended fundamental changes in the North and South Broward Hospital Districts and took a swipe at the high costs of Jackson Health System. The commission also recommended major Medicaid alterations that could be felt by all hospitals in the state.