Medicare & Medicaid
WellCare, a publicly traded insurer based in Florida, has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Human Services in Iowa, contesting its nixed contract to help oversee the state's Medicaid program.
Men are getting more screening colonoscopies since the health law reduced how much Medicare beneficiaries pay out of pocket for the preventive tests, a recent study found. The change, however, didn't affect women's rates.
WellCare Health Plans, Inc., a managed care service provider for government-sponsored healthcare programs, is enhancing their Medicaid benefits in Kentucky by offering several new programs aimed at preventative health, the company announced through a statement. The new benefits take effect January 1, 2016.
Hospital giant HCA will pay $2 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit alleging that medically unnecessary and substandard heart surgeries were being performed at Fairview Park Hospital in Dublin, Georgia, the U.S Department of Justice said Tuesday.
As prescription drug prices continue to drive up healthcare spending, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is creating a new online dashboard to increase transparency and address affordability. Read the story for the full price breakdown.
CMS said 540 drugs had a 25-percent increase for $13.7 billion, or 11 percent of program costs.
The group ColoradoCareYES gathered enough signatures -- more than 100,000 -- to put a single-payer health system on the ballot next fall.
Thirty-two hospitals in 15 states, including the Cleveland Clinic and hospitals associated with the Community Health Systems, Tenet and Banner Health, are on the hook for $28 million to settle allegations they submitted false claims for inpatient care to perform minimally-invasive spinal surgery that could have been done in a less expensive outpatient setting, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Don Goldmann, chief medical and scientific officer for Institute of Healthcare Improvement, thinks the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services needs to change its methodology for ranking providers by their number of hospital-acquired infections as many respected hospitals are seeing payment reductions in the program.
After the last of the baby boomers become fully eligible for Medicare, the federal health program can expect significantly higher costs in 2030 both because of the high number of beneficiaries and because many are expected to be significantly less healthy than previous generations.