A North Texas lawmaker has moved to kill a troubled program that was supposed to improve care for about 78,000 elderly and disabled Medicaid patients. A bill by state Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, calls for the state to end the integrated care management program in 13 counties and sever its contract with the Evercare unit of UnitedHealth Group. The state has fined Evercare repeatedly and ordered it to increase staff and fix other problems, but lawmakers have continued to receive complaints about the program.
A nonprofit will be able to expand services at its new Gloucester, MA, community health center thanks to $1.3 million in federal stimulus money. North Shore Community Health was among the 126 health centers nationwide receiving a collective $155 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Democrats and Republicans are battling over whether the government should establish a Medicare-style public insurance option for people under 65. Top Republican senators declared in a letter to President Obama that they would oppose any healthcare bill with a public plan because it would force insurers to compete on an "unlevel playing field" with the government, which could theoretically set artificially low prices and subsidize any shortfalls with taxpayers' money. The issue will be among the most difficult Obama will have to address as he seeks a sweeping healthcare overhaul.
Medtronic has announced that at least 13 people might have died in connection with a heart device that it recalled in 2007 but was still in widespread use, including four patients whose deaths were related to efforts by doctors to surgically remove the product. The new data reflect the first fatality update by Medtronic since October 2007, when it recalled the device—a thin electrical cable that connects an implanted defibrillator to a patient's heart. The company cited five deaths when it recalled the product, saying fractures in the cable could cause a defibrillator to fail to deliver a lifesaving shock to an erratically beating heart, or to fire for no reason.
Officers from the State Parole Board have given a presentation to a dozen hospitals throughout New Jersey to help them identify the telltale signs of gang membership. Mary Ditri, director of professional practice for the New Jersey Hospital Association, said the association reached out to the parole board after altercations involving gang members were reported in other states.
Three years ago, Massachusetts brought near-universal health coverage to the state very quickly. To make it happen, Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Mitt Romney deferred until another day any serious effort to control the state's runaway health costs. But threatened first by rapid early enrollment in its new subsidized insurance program and now by a withering economy, the state's health overhaul has entered a second, more challenging phase. Due to new taxes and fees imposed last year, the health plan's jittery finances have stabilized for the moment. But government and industry officials agree that the plan will not be sustainable over the next 5 to 10 years if they do not take significant steps to arrest the growth of health spending.