Chris Anderson
Anthem Blue Cross has announced a deal with ApolloMed to provide hospitalist services at 24 acute care hospitals in the Los Angeles area for members enrolled in its Medi-Cal state sponsored business lines.
The Patient Advocate Foundation served nearly 83,000 patients seeking help with access to care issues in 2010, an increase of 49.8 percent from 2009. Of that number, two-thirds reported debt crisis issues related to direct medical expenses or other cost-of-living expenses.
The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will have little net effect on overall employment but should provide a modest boost in healthcare sector employment, according to the Urban Institute.
Facing continued public outcry and pressure from the California Department of Insurance, two of the state's largest health insurers have scaled back or eliminated their plans to raise rates in 2011.
The House is set to vote Wednesday on a bill that would deny more than $15 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services to administer the Prevention and Public Health Fund, which was created in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act last year.
Community Health Systems officials say a lawsuit filed by Tenet Healthcare that claims CHS overbilled Medicare by $280 billion from 2006-2009 is 'baseless' and shows Tenet is engaged in a 'scorched earth' defense of CHS' hostile takeover bid launched in early December.
Tenet Healthcare has taken its fight to stave off a hostile takeover bid by Community Health Systems to the next level - filing a lawsuit that alleges the hospital operator improperly bills cases as higher-paying admissions rather than lower-paying outpatient observations.
Healthcare providers in South Carolina will face their first payment cut in three years after Gov. Nikki Haley signed a bill repealing a 2008 proviso in state law that prevented the Department of Health and Human Services from lowering Medicaid reimbursement rates.
An analysis by the Congressional Budget Office of the budget proposal submitted Tuesday by House Finance Committee Chairman Paul Ryan shows that it would shift more healthcare costs to seniors while requiring states to either pick up a much larger portion of Medicaid funding or significantly reduce spending.
A Republican budget proposal for 2012, to be presented to Congress this week, seeks to save more than $4 trillion over the next 10 years and would dramatically alter how the government funds both Medicare and Medicaid.