Latest KFF Health News Stories
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg Ends 6-Year Run
Elsewhere, the Food and Drug Administration issues guidance on how to study abuse-deterrent painkillers, and measles vaccinations are up after a recent outbreak scare.
Congress Gets Deadline Extension On The Doc Fix
The Department of Health and Human Services will hold claims until April 15 even though the 21 percent reduction in Medicare physician reimbursements was scheduled to kick in April 1.
Sen. Bob Menendez Indicted On Bribery, Conspiracy Charges
The indictment charges the New Jersey senator with intervening on behalf of a Florida eye surgeon, who also was a high-dollar contributor, to help resolve Medicare billing disputes. It also alleges he pushed a port security deal in which the surgeon had a financial interest and helped the doctor’s foreign girlfriends obtain travel visas.
Gov. Scott Walker Says He Won’t Allow Wis. To Set Up Health Marketplace
“We’re going to push back,” the governor said when speaking about options if the Supreme Court rules later this year to strike down federal subsidies to consumers in states that didn’t establish their own insurance exchanges. Also in news about those marketplaces, Minnesota lawmakers are looking at a plan that would end a long-standing program to help people get insurance and transfer them instead to the state exchange.
Medicaid Expansion A Point Of Contention In Florida’s Budget Debate
The Florida House and Senate have advanced competing budget blueprints, and the Senate measure includes a Medicaid expansion plan. News outlets also offer updates on expansion efforts in Kentucky and Alaska.
Slow Response So Far For Special Obamacare Sign-Up Period
About 36,000 of an estimated 4 million people who are eligible have taken advantage of a second chance to sign up for coverage under the federal health law, with almost four weeks until the deadline. Meanwhile, The Washington Post’s Fact Checker examines the president’s assertion that the law has averted 50,000 hospital deaths and The Associated Press looks ahead to the innovation waivers that states can get beginning in 2017.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
Viewpoints: Lawmaker’s Obamacare Surprise; Conn.’s Stiff Medicaid Cuts; Fla. Budget Debate
A selection of opinions on health care from around the country.
A selection of health policy stories from Indiana, Connecticut, Texas, Kansas, Iowa and Arizona.
Ohio Lawsuit Seeks To Stop State’s Re-Determination Of Medicaid Eligibility
In other state Medicaid news, the Missouri state senate will consider a proposal to increase eligibility for people with disabilities. Meanwhile, Vermont’s medicaid managed care monitoring is under scrutiny.
Make It Easier For Vets To Get Mental Health Care, Senator Says
New legislation introduced by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, seeks to expand veterans’ ability to receive mental health services outside of the VA system and reduce wait times. Meanwhile, reports and documents from the Department of Veterans Affairs describe two cases of mismanagement, one by a hospital chief in Puerto Rico and another by a VA office supervisor in Hawaii.
Tapping Technology, Patient Involvement For Healing
The New York Times looks at potential health gains when patients have full and easier access to their medical information, while Reuters reports on using web searches to predict population disease risks. Other stories examine the growing focus on wellness and prevention during physicals and how doctors are altering their practices.
Indictment Charges Patients Lured To New York ‘Medicaid Mill’ By Free Shoes
Twenty-three people, including nine doctors, are accused of bilking Medicare and Medicaid of nearly $7 million in unnecessary medical tests. And in Maine, a nursing facility agrees to pay $1.2 million to settle allegations of inflated Medicare claims.
GOP Leaders Negotiate Budget Differences During Congressional Recess
Top House and Senate Republican budget negotiators are working over this two-week break to iron-out differences between the two chambers’ budget blueprints, including changes to the Medicare program. But wariness remains, according to one Washington Post report, about whether lawmakers will be able to use momentum from the pending Medicare physician pay measure to fashion other compromise legislation.
Reuters reports how states like Wisconsin, New Jersey and Louisiana have experienced infusions of health law funds despite their Republican governors’ staunch opposition to the health law. Meanwhile, a Facebook request by Rep. Cathy McMorris Rogers asking users to share negative stories about the overhaul led to many positive responses.
Fla. Lawmakers’ Medicaid Expansion Plans Draw Attacks From Conservative Group
The Americans for Prosperity, an advocacy group financed by the Koch brothers, is taking aim at Florida Senate President Andy Gardiner, a Republican, and others in the state senate. In response, a coalition of business leaders released a letter thanking them for their work on the issue. In other Medicaid news, California will seek a federal waiver to continue its health reform plans, and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., places blame for future shortcomings in geriatric care on Missouri legislators’ failure to pursue an expansion of the state-federal health insurance program for people with low incomes.
High Court Decision Likely To Chill Medi-Cal Lawsuits
Experts say the decision tilts the legal landscape in future disputes between Medi-Cal and health care providers and their patients.
Supreme Court: Medicaid Providers Can’t Sue States To Raise Reimbursement Rates
In a 5-4 decision, the high court ruled Tuesday that hospitals and other health care providers can’t sue a state in an effort to have Medicaid rates increased in keeping with rising medical costs.
Today’s early morning highlights from the major news organizations.
High Court Sides With Idaho In Medicaid Reimbursement Rate Case
The Supreme Court ruled that private health care providers can’t sue states to force them to increase their Medicaid reimbursement rates in keeping with increasing medical costs.
