News
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is proposing to fix the Sustainable Growth Rate by sharing the cost of repealing the SGR among physicians, other health professionals, providers in other sectors and beneficiaries. The response from those in the industry has been less than supportive.
The proportion of Americans who reported going without or delaying needed healthcare declined modestly between 2007 and 2010, according to a national report released in late August by the Center for Studying Health System Change.
According to a report last month from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Medicare Advantage premiums will decrease by an average of 4 percent in 2012 and plans expect enrollment to increase by as much as 10 percent. This comes on the heels of an earlier announcement showing that the average Part D prescription plan premiums would remain virtually unchanged in 2012.
The Veterans Health Administration, the largest integrated healthcare system in the country, has long employed many of the approaches Medicare is pushing on all hospitals to cut unnecessary readmissions. But new data show VA hospital patients are just as likely to end up back in the hospital as are patients at private hospitals.
Ignoring months of protests, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced in late August the next steps for a major expansion of a competitive bidding program designed to help lower costs for quality durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies.
When thieves cut a hole through the roof of Eli Lilly’s Enfield, Conn. warehouse on a Sunday in March 2010, they were able to rappel inside and fill tractor trailers full of anti-depressants and cancer-fighting drugs. The heist netted the thieves $75 million worth of goods and brought to the attention of the nation a problem that had been increasingly plaguing the pharmaceutical industry: the theft of pharmaceutical products by organized criminals.
First the bad news: a new U.S. Census report showed that the uninsured population grew to 49.9 million in 2010, an increase of 900,000 from 2009. The good news? Given the sluggish post-recession economy and a stubbornly high unemployment rate, the increase could have been much bigger.
Group purchasing organizations have traditionally been seen as a way for hospitals and healthcare providers to save money on supplies. However, in the current economic environment, as providers are squeezed from all sides, many are looking to their GPO for more than just purchasing.
HP Enterprise Services announced the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) has signed a renewal service agreement to manage the state's Medicaid Management Information System. The $172 million, three-year extension will help the state transition to a managed care environment.
A recently released report form the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found more than 170,000 instances of so-called 'doctor shopping' of 14 commonly abused prescription medications by Medicare Part D beneficiaries.