As part of a multimillion-dollar information technology strategy, Seattle-based HMO Group Health Cooperative offers members the ability to email their doctors. Group Health representatives say the initiative has the potential to produce significant cost savings from greater efficiency and better medical care.
Florida's Medicaid reform experiment is being challenged in court in a federal class-action lawsuit filed by three recipients who claim the state improperly traps people in unsuitable medical coverage. The reform plan put about 200,000 recipients from Broward County and the Jacksonville area into HMO-style plans in an attempt to save money and improve care.
Aiming to slash $1.1 billion from Medi-Cal, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has presented a budget plan that would reduce reimbursement to providersby 10 percent, and cut podiatry, hearing and vision services to adults. Many healthcare experts said that essential services are on the cutting block, critically affecting millions of people, especially poor, older adults and the disabled.
The video shows a disheveled, unshaven CNN Headline News host talking about a hemorrhoid operation gone wrong. The video of Glenn Beck has rapidly became an Internet sensation, fueling his new crusade against healthcare practitioners who don't care.
Retiree advocates gave a mixed reaction to a new regulation allowing employers to provide more limited healthcare benefits for retirees who are 65 and older. The regulation from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission makes clear that employers can spend more on retirees under 65 than those over 65 without breaking age discrimination laws, so they can cut or reduce benefits for retirees when they become eligible for Medicare.
A for-profit health insurance company recently said noto a dying 17-year-old girl in California, then changed its mind after bad publicity. The case raises complex questions about how the country rations resources and makes medical decisions in what one ethicist called "last-chance" situations. The case also illustrates how the payment battleground has shifted, experts say.
Verilogue, a technology startup company, has software that analyzes the real-time patient-physician interactions, compiles a verbatim transcript, and puts the recording and transcript in a database that Verilogue clients in the healthcare industry will use to learn what doctors and patients actually say to each other about diseases and medicines. The findings will be used for medical research.
The National Committee for Quality Assurance has granted full accreditation for CIGNA's preferred provider plans nationwide. The accreditation is based on a review of the PPO and "Open Access Plus" plans and how they meet standards for quality improvement, management of use of services, credentialing of care providers, and other areas.
TennCare has released a request for proposals for healthcare plans to offer both medical and behavioral health services to enrollees in East and West Tennessee. At stake in the latest opportunity is 790,000 beneficiaries and premium revenue of $2.1 billion. In July 2006, AmeriGroup and AmeriChoice by UnitedHealthcare won after completion of a similar process for Middle Tennessee members of the state's expanded Medicaid program.
To offset a looming state budget gap, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick will propose shifting more of the cost of health insurance premiums onto tens of thousands of state employees. Under the plan, about 37,000 employees would see their monthly premiums increase by 10 percent. Patrick also plans to require the purchase of more generic drugs in the state Medicaid program, and wants to cut Medicaid reimbursements to some hospitals and doctors for additional savings, according to officials.
