State Highlights: N.H. Moves Forward With Changes To Provider Network Rules; Wis. Last On Malpractice Claims Payments

The Associated Press: New Hampshire Moves Ahead With Updating Insurance Rules
The New Hampshire Insurance Department is moving forward with changing its rules for health care provider networks, but some insurance companies aren't yet sold on a key part of the proposed approach. Department officials say the rules are ripe for revision given how much health care has changed since the standards for evaluating network adequacy were enacted in 2001. They created a working group to begin the process last year, with a goal of having new standards in place in 2017. (Ramer, 7/10)

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: Wisconsin Last Among States For Malpractice Claim Payments, Analysis Shows
Wisconsin doctors paid fewer medical malpractice claims per capita last year than their peers in any other state — and physicians here are consistently at the bottom nationwide when it comes to paying such claims, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis of federal data. (Spivak and Crowe, 7/11)

The Sacramento Bee: Rate Hike For Healthcare Providers Gets No Mention In Tobacco Tax Petition Language
A tobacco-tax initiative proposed for the November 2016 ballot would raise as much as $1 billion to increase reimbursement rates for healthcare providers, about three-quarters of the estimated revenue that would be generated by the $2-per-pack tax hike. (Miller, 7/10)

Reuters: Michigan Doctor Gets 45-Year Prison Sentence For Health Care Fraud
A federal judge on Friday sentenced a Detroit-area doctor who admitted performing unnecessary procedures on hundreds of cancer patients to 45 years in prison, prosecutors said. Dr. Farid Fata, 50, who pleaded guilty in September to more than a dozen healthcare and financial fraud charges, was accused of administering unnecessary infusions or injections on 553 patients and submitting about $34 million of fraudulent claims to Medicare and private insurers. (Gonzales, 7/10)

The Detroit Free Press: Cancer Doc Patients Say 45 Years In Prison Not Enough
He pumped poisonous chemotherapy drugs into patients for years, telling them they had cancer. They didn't. He over-treated terminal cancer patients rather than letting them die peacefully. When he could profit from it, he also under-treated actual cancer patients. And on Friday, nearly two years after his arrest, Dr. Farid Fata was sentenced to 45 years in federal prison for violating more than 550 patients' trust and raking in more than $17 million from fraudulent billings. (Allen, 7/10)

The Texas Tribune: Biomedical Research Turning More To Private Funds
The pharmaceutical company Sanofi will fund up to $2.4 million a year in biomedical research at the University of Texas System under a deal announced Thursday, the latest in a trend toward more research funding from private industry as government research money dwindles. The university system and multinational company called the agreement a mutually beneficial way to advance new discoveries in biomedicine, and said specific research to be funded has not yet been identified. But watchdogs say universities have to be vigilant to prevent conflicts of interest as such funding relationships become more common. Private funding for research at the UT System has grown nearly 30 percent in the last five years, administrators said. (Walters, 7/10)

The Associated Press: NY Says Home Care Company Will Pay $22.4M In Inquiry
The New York Attorney General's office says a home care provider formerly owned by Walgreens will pay $22.4 million to end allegations it overcharged the state's Medicaid program for a costly drug that is mostly given to premature babies. (7/10)

The Tennessean: Metro Council Protects Lifetime Health Benefits — Again
The [Nashville] Metro Council has voted to protect the city subsidy that covers lifetime health insurance for former council members — yet again. Not even the headwind of an upcoming election can derail the council's most controversial perk. With the clock running out on the current council, term-limited Councilman Phil Claiborne had introduced a bill that would have reduced Metro's subsidy for lifetime health insurance for former two-term council members after they leave office. With several council members seeking re-election or running for at-large seats, he figured he had better odds with a proposal that fell short two years ago. (Garrison, 7/10)

The Associated Press: Medicare Warns Winnebago Hospital To Correct Deficiencies
Officials have warned a northeast Nebraska hospital for the second time in two years that its Medicare and Nebraska Medicaid funding will be pulled unless the hospital adequately addresses treatment deficiencies. Spokesman Mike Fierberg for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said Friday that he couldn't release the May survey report that led to the warning sent Wednesday to the Winnebago Indian Health Service Hospital. But the report noted "immediate jeopardy to patients," Fierberg said. (7/10)

The Associated Press: Undergraduate Medical Students Treat Homeless People's Feet
Foot care, including washing, scraping and filing calluses, clipping toenails and massage, also had practical health applications in this case, said Dr. Michelle Whitehurst-Cook, associate dean of admissions at the VCU School of Medicine. Whitehurst-Cook runs the summer program with Cheryl Ford-Smith, an associate professor of physical therapy at VCU. "We were serving the homeless, and the feet seem to be a big issue with them, because they're walking all the time," said Whitehurst-Cook, also an associate professor. During the school year, students in VCU's Department of Family Medicine's rural and inner-city preceptorship program work with Caritas, a homeless services organization in Richmond. They see a lot of foot-related ailments, some related to diabetes. (7/11)