Wisconsin will craft new strategies to sign children up for the state's BadgerCare Plus healthcare program and keep them enrolled under a $1 million grant it received from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Wisconsin was one of eight states chosen to receive a grant. Officials at the state Department of Health Services will work with the Foundation to find the reasons why children lose eligibility and create ways of helping children and families stay enrolled.
A Marion, IN, Superior Court ruling has stopped Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's attempt to terminate its contracts early with St. Francis Hospital, allowing 2.5 million Indiana residents to continue to pay in-network costs for treatment at St. Francis and its affiliates. Anthem had sought to end its contract with St. Francis on May 1, but the ruling by Judge Patrick L. McCarty means people with Anthem health insurance can continue to get treatment at St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers at the in-network rate, at least until the current agreement expires Sept. 1.
House Democrats pressed a budget plan to make it easier to pass healthcare legislation backed by President Barack Obama, but their GOP rivals in the Senate preserved their ability to block upcoming legislation on global warming. As debate continued on nonbinding Democratic budget plans largely mimicking President Barack Obama's $3.6 trillion budget proposal, Republicans in the House offered an alternative that would eventually end the Medicare program as it is now known.
Minnesota-based Fairview Health Services plans to freeze 2009 wages for all employees in hopes of saving $24.5 million. The latest cost reductions by Minneapolis area's second-biggest hospital and clinic chain come after layoffs, reduced pension contributions, and new limits on banked vacation were not enough to match the shortfall in revenues as the economy deteriorated. Fairview now hopes to save $15.6 million by eliminating 2009 pay increases for non-union workers.
Medicaid patients living in Tampa or Gainesville, FL, could soon be part of a pilot project that would overhaul how they get healthcare.
State lawmakers are considering yet another change to the way the nearly $16 billion state-federal healthcare program for the poor works. Four years ago, legislators agreed to a controversial Medicaid reform pilot program for Broward and Duval counties that forced patients to get their care through a managed care organization. Now a House panel has approved a measure that would steer patients in Alachua and Hillsborough counties into a new network that links medical schools with primary care clinics.
About 500,000 working-age Californians have lost health insurance since the start of the recession, and an additional 600,000 could lose theirs by 2012 even if the economy fully recovers, according to a UC Berkeley report. The report estimated that between November 2007 and February of this year, about 3.7 million more American adults became uninsured.