WellCare Health Plans Inc., Florida's largest provider of managed healthcare for the poor, expects its net income to drop substantially in the first nine months of 2008 because its increased enrollment hasn't offset added medical benefits costs. As of Sept. 30, WellCare's total membership was 2.5 million, an 8% increase from membership of 2.3 million on the same day a year earlier. The membership gain is expected to boost revenue, but that likely would be offset by an increase in the cost of providing medical benefits.
California's budget woes could leave thousands of California children on a waiting list for healthcare, as state officials who oversee the Healthy Families Program are scrambling to find ways around a $17.2 million budget shortage. The program provides low-cost health, dental, and vision coverage to uninsured children of working families.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration will start paying healthcare providers again after the state Supreme Court put a temporary hold on a judge's order to shut down an expansion of the state's FamilyCare program. The decision marked the latest twist in Blagojevich's attempt to expand state-subsidized healthcare without lawmakers' approval. The governor's unauthorized expansion allowed families of four making up to $83,000 a year to get coverage, but his administration was then sued by two prominent businessmen and a lawyer to stop it.
A 2005 Illinois law limiting the amount of money juries may award in medical malpractice cases unfairly targets those most seriously injured who deserve the most compensation, lawyers have told the Illinois Supreme Court. Proponents of the law asked the court not to limit what they called lawmakers' attempt to stem a healthcare crisis. The law restricts awards on non-economic damages to $500,000 against doctors and $1 million against hospitals. It was aimed at lowering medial insurance rates blamed for driving physicians out of the state.
A group of labor unions is launching a campaign that accuses CVS Caremark Corp. of violating patient privacy and improperly pushing doctors to prescribe a costly prescription drug. Change to Win, a group of unions that represents about six million workers, said CVS's pharmacy benefits management business has been urging doctors via a letter to add Merck & Co. diabetes drug Januvia to patients' treatments. The letter said CVS identified the diabetes patients through a review of prescription-drug claims processed by its Caremark unit.
The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston will lay off about 3,800 workers because it is running out of money. The University of Texas Board of Regents said in a news release that the hospital would have no money to operate in about three months at its current spending rate. Ike caused nearly $710 million in losses to the hospital when it struck the Texas coast in September and officials have said insurance covered only about $100 million of that.