Healthcare Finance Staff
EMD Serono, an affiliate of German drug maker Merck, has agreed to pay $44.3 million to settle a lawsuit alleging false claims submissions to Medicare and Medicaid for the multiple sclerosis drug Rebif.
Nine in 10 American workers either have no idea what their healthcare costs are likely to be in retirement or underestimate those costs, says a new consumer survey from Sun Life Financial.
"Historically, telehealth hasn't received the attention that it's deserved from the federal government," says Neal Neuberger, executive director of the Institute for e-Health Policy and president of Health Tech Strategies.
Poor childhood health caused by environmental factors, such as air pollution and exposure to toxic chemicals, cost the United States $76.6 billion in 2008, according to authors of a study in the May issue of Health Affairs.
Managed Health Care Associates, a healthcare service company focused on alternate site providers, has acquired Tidewater Group Purchasing from Omnicare, a Kentucky-based provider of pharmaceutical care for the elderly.
Amedisys, a Louisiana-based home health and hospice company, plans to acquire the hospice operations of Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey.
Aetna has announced a collaboration with Mindbloom, a Seattle-based social media company, that will offer plan members an enhanced version of Life Game, Mindbloom's online social game for personal wellness.
The Thomson Reuters Healthcare Spending Index for Private Insurance showed that costs to people covered under employer-sponsored health insurance rose at a rate of 5.8 percent last year, which was down from 6.6 percent in 2009.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told Florida officials it could not extend the state's current managed care waiver for Medicaid to a statewide program. The pilot program, granted a waiver to run in five counties in 2006, has been the model for recent efforts by the state to reform its Medicaid program.
Community Hospital Long Beach has joined MemorialCare Health System as its sixth hospital facility in Los Angeles and Orange counties and third hospital in Long Beach.