Despite opposition from physician and patient groups, Hawaii will kick off a new managed care Medicaid program next month that will cover 39,000 Medicaid beneficiaries, who are aged, blind, and/or disabled. Two insurers, UnitedHealth Group Inc., and WellCare Health Plans Inc., will offer the coverage. They have each recruited more than 1,000 healthcare providers. Some doctors have refused to participate in the program because of lower reimbursements and fears associated with changing from a fee-for-service program.
Architects for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Louisiana State University System have unveiled preliminary plans Thursday for medical complexes in New Orleans. The architects showed stakeholders various options with a common result: distinctly independent hospitals that appear to lack much of the "synergy" the participating institutions once touted. Speaking to preservationists and planners, separate design teams emphasized that the schematic designs are "preliminary," but some in the audience expressed surprise when comparing the early renderings.
Nearly 12,000 people have been cut from the Polk County, FL, government-run healthcare plan for the poor because it was bleeding money. Slightly more than 1,300 people remain covered by the plan, funded by a voter-approved half-cent sales tax. The county won't be able to cover more people until it plugs a $12.5 million shortfall, according to Steve Yaskal, fiscal manager with Polk's Community Health and Social Services.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has put fighting financial and healthcare fraud at the top of his to-do list. Last year, the attorney general's office received about 1,000 healthcare related formal complaints out of more than 40,700 complaints. They involved medical billing practices (497), healthcare professionals (69), medical products (331) and nursing homes, hospital care, and child care facilities (95.) In the past, that relatively low number of complaints might not have warranted priority status. But Koster plans to change that and will pursue problems for which there may be no complaints, a spokesman says.
Doctors in western New York have a new, electronic way to access patient records with the launch of the HEALTHeLINK Western New York Clinical Information Exchange. One goal of the health data exchange system is to reduce medical errors and avoid costly duplicative tests. The system is also a step toward Gov. David Paterson's goal of creating a unified statewide system where doctors can access records that are now scattered among different clinics and offices.
St. Louis-area community health centers, a large chunk of the healthcare safety net that serves the uninsured and underinsured, have been strained by a major boost in business during the past year. The uptick comes as jobless rates spike and more people lose their employer-based health insurance. For the growing group that depends on the health centers, officials said, the increased demand could mean longer waits to get appointments. The financial strain could reverse some of the recent progress at St. Louis area sites toward keeping wait times down, they added.