Here are 17 issues dealing with Medicare or Medicaid that occurred in the past week, starting with the most recent.
1. A Gallup poll found Medicaid beneficiaries are sicker than their privately insured counterparts, with more than 30 percent of Medicaid patients classified as obese and nearly a quarter being treated for depression and hypertension.
2. When President Barack Obama's budget proposal is released next Wednesday, Medicaid will not be among the many line items to shrink since last year.
3. Maine Medical Center in Portland sued HHS, claiming the agency left the hospital with nearly $3 million in unpaid Medicare and MaineCare claims from a decade ago.
4. A bipartisan bill that would reform Medicare Recovery Auditors, or Medicare RACs, enflamed a battle between hospitals that support it and the RACs that oppose it.
5. Reduced Medicare reimbursements that took effect April 1 due to sequestration led cancer clinics nationwide to reject Medicare patients.
6. Officials at St. Luke's University Health Network in Bethlehem, Pa., and Easton (Pa.) Hospital said their organizations will pay nearly $1.5 million to resolve allegations they improperly overbilled Medicare.
7. A report from the HHS Office of Inspector General found North Shore Medical Center, a two-hospital system in Massachusetts that is part of Boston-based Partners HealthCare, will have to refund more than $816,000 in Medicare payments to the government after an audit found several billing errors.
8. A local report said Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear may veto a bill unanimously passed in both the state House and Senate that would require Medicaid managed care companies to make prompt payments to hospitals and other providers.
9. In an effort to control healthcare costs of the nation's oldest, poorest and often sickest patients, 34 states have implemented or are planning integration programs within the next two years for the so-called dual eligibles who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid.
10. The Senate Finance Committee scheduled a hearing next week for the confirmation of Marilyn Tavenner as CMS administrator.
11. Two Pennsylvania hospitals filed suit against HHS, claiming the agency's disproportionate share hospital program shorted them by more than $1.8 million since 1995.
12. Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) proposed a new bill that aims to reduce regulatory burdens for Medicare providers and tailor meaningful use requirements to better meet their needs.
13. Doubling back on its push to cut Medicare Advantage payments, CMS announced it would instead increase its rates to Medicare Advantage plans by 3.3 percent next year rather than the 2.3 percent slash it had originally planned.
14. Texas Gov. Rick Perry kept his promise to not expand the state's Medicaid program in an address to the state legislature.
15. In a somewhat positive reversal for Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanguard Health Systems, the Arizona Medicaid program awarded a three-year capped contract to the for-profit hospital chain's Phoenix-based health plan.
16. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence changed his tune on meeting federal criteria to cover the poor, working to curry favor instead of stoking conservative ire among a Republican-controlled legislature for his plan to add 400,000 residents to its Healthy Indiana managed care plan with federal money.
17. A report by the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy found New Jersey Medicaid accountable care organizations could save an estimated $284 million if 13 low-income regions performed at the level of the region with the best cost profile.
1. A Gallup poll found Medicaid beneficiaries are sicker than their privately insured counterparts, with more than 30 percent of Medicaid patients classified as obese and nearly a quarter being treated for depression and hypertension.
2. When President Barack Obama's budget proposal is released next Wednesday, Medicaid will not be among the many line items to shrink since last year.
3. Maine Medical Center in Portland sued HHS, claiming the agency left the hospital with nearly $3 million in unpaid Medicare and MaineCare claims from a decade ago.
4. A bipartisan bill that would reform Medicare Recovery Auditors, or Medicare RACs, enflamed a battle between hospitals that support it and the RACs that oppose it.
5. Reduced Medicare reimbursements that took effect April 1 due to sequestration led cancer clinics nationwide to reject Medicare patients.
6. Officials at St. Luke's University Health Network in Bethlehem, Pa., and Easton (Pa.) Hospital said their organizations will pay nearly $1.5 million to resolve allegations they improperly overbilled Medicare.
7. A report from the HHS Office of Inspector General found North Shore Medical Center, a two-hospital system in Massachusetts that is part of Boston-based Partners HealthCare, will have to refund more than $816,000 in Medicare payments to the government after an audit found several billing errors.
8. A local report said Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear may veto a bill unanimously passed in both the state House and Senate that would require Medicaid managed care companies to make prompt payments to hospitals and other providers.
9. In an effort to control healthcare costs of the nation's oldest, poorest and often sickest patients, 34 states have implemented or are planning integration programs within the next two years for the so-called dual eligibles who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid.
10. The Senate Finance Committee scheduled a hearing next week for the confirmation of Marilyn Tavenner as CMS administrator.
11. Two Pennsylvania hospitals filed suit against HHS, claiming the agency's disproportionate share hospital program shorted them by more than $1.8 million since 1995.
12. Rep. Diane Black (R-Tenn.) proposed a new bill that aims to reduce regulatory burdens for Medicare providers and tailor meaningful use requirements to better meet their needs.
13. Doubling back on its push to cut Medicare Advantage payments, CMS announced it would instead increase its rates to Medicare Advantage plans by 3.3 percent next year rather than the 2.3 percent slash it had originally planned.
14. Texas Gov. Rick Perry kept his promise to not expand the state's Medicaid program in an address to the state legislature.
15. In a somewhat positive reversal for Nashville, Tenn.-based Vanguard Health Systems, the Arizona Medicaid program awarded a three-year capped contract to the for-profit hospital chain's Phoenix-based health plan.
16. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence changed his tune on meeting federal criteria to cover the poor, working to curry favor instead of stoking conservative ire among a Republican-controlled legislature for his plan to add 400,000 residents to its Healthy Indiana managed care plan with federal money.
17. A report by the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy found New Jersey Medicaid accountable care organizations could save an estimated $284 million if 13 low-income regions performed at the level of the region with the best cost profile.
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