American Dental Association Wants To Block Dental Coverage In Medicare
The ADA argues that Medicare won’t reimburse enough to cover their costs and seeks an alternative plan that would limit benefits to the poorest Medicare recipients, The Wall Street Journal says.
The Wall Street Journal:
Dentists’ Group Fights Plan To Cover Dental Benefits Under Medicare
The American Dental Association is mobilizing its 162,000 members to fight a proposal to include dental coverage for all Medicare recipients, opposition that could prove pivotal as Democrats look to make cuts in their $3.5 trillion domestic policy agenda. Giving dental, vision and hearing benefits to the 60 million older and disabled Americans covered by Medicare will provide needed care to people who otherwise might not afford it, supporters say. (Bykowicz, 9/27)
In other health care industry news —
The Oregonian:
Moda Health Buys Out Delta Dental’s Stake In The Company 2 Years After Life Raft Investment
Moda Health, one of Portland’s largest health insurers, has come back from the financial brink and regained its independence. Thanks in part to the proceeds of Moda’s $250 million Supreme Court victory over the federal government, the company closed a deal Monday to buy back the equity stake it had sold to a California dental insurance company back when it was cash-poor to the point of insolvency. (Manning, 9/27)
Modern Healthcare:
Intermountain Launching Outpatient Imaging Company
Intermountain Healthcare plans to launch a new subsidiary, Tellica Imaging, to offer MRIs and CT scans outside its hospitals, the company announced Monday. The new entity will kick off operations in Utah, with plans to open three standalone imaging sites in the Beehive State later this year, before adding at least five more locations starting next year, the Salt Lake City-based health system said in a news release. (Christ, 9/27)
Modern Healthcare:
AARP Inks Exclusive Brand Deal With Oak Street Health
The AARP has named Oak Street Health its primary care provider of choice in a deal that reflects an evolving senior care market increasingly dominated by tech-enabled clinics operating under value-based care contracts. Come Jan. 1, all Oak Street Health members will automatically receive free AARP memberships, said Dr. Griffin Myers, chief medical officer at the Chicago-based primary care network for adults on Medicare. The two organizations will also partner to create jointly branded events, as well as on patient quality and experience efforts. (Tepper, 9/27)
North Carolina Health News:
Refuge For Patients In Mental Distress After The ER
When Mamadou Kasse drives for Uber or Lyft around Winston-Salem, he sometimes gets requests to pick up patients discharged from a hospital emergency department. Those pick up requests come from the hospital, which pays for the rides, he said. With Uber or Lyft, each ride request includes an address for the passenger’s destination. When Kasse picks up the patients, they often say they don’t live at or don’t feel comfortable going to the address provided. (Knopf, 9/28)
In updates about the Theranos trial —
The Wall Street Journal:
Theranos Trial Jurors To Weigh Whether Investors Were Dupes Or Savvy Speculators
The outcome of Elizabeth Holmes’s trial partly hinges on how jurors answer the question of whether investors in Theranos Inc. were savvy speculators who made an unwise but informed bet or were hoodwinked by a lying founder. Theranos’s investors, who bet almost $1 billion on the company and lost nearly all of it, are a disparate group: a professional football team owner, a media magnate, a Mexican tycoon, a four-star military general, a Greek shipping heir and the family office of a billionaire Republican Party donor, who all invested alongside the hedge funds and venture-capital firms that more traditionally back startups. (Somerville, 9/27)
