Years After Law, Kennedy Continues Mental Health Coverage Parity Battle

English: Centre for Mental Health logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Topics: Politics, Mental Health, Insurance, Delivery of Care, States

Apr 01, 2013

A mental health parity law passed in 2008, yet one of the measure’s key backers — former Congressman Patrick Kennedy — continues the fight for equal coverage of mental illness. He is meeting mixed success.WBUR: CommonHealth: Kennedy Calling For Equal Coverage Of Mental Health — Yes, Still
Mental health “parity” is officially a done deal. Congress passed a law back in 2008 requiring health insurers to treat mental health on a par with physical health, covering care for mental illness and addiction no less than they cover physical care. Many states have also passed their own mental health parity laws. So why has former Congressman Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island — lead sponsor of the 2008 bill together with his late father, Sen. Ted Kennedy — spent much of the last couple of years criss-crossing the country to advocate for mental health parity? (3/29).

In Texas, mental health funding faces a tough road ahead after budget gaps appear —

The Associated Press: Texas Mental Health Funding Leaves Gaps
Standing in a courtyard by the state Capitol, Sen. Judith Zaffirini reached out to touch the Mental Health Bell, forged in the 1950s from chains once used to shackle asylum patients, brought to Texas this year on display as a 300-pound symbol of hope. … But while advocates for the mentally ill roundly cheer their gains, it is becoming clear the money will go only so far. Lawmakers are scrambling to repair a patchwork system spread among community centers, state agencies and all levels of the criminal justice system (Brick, 3/30).

This is part of Kaiser Health News‘ Daily Report – a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day’s news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Report here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.

Louisiana Health Secretary Submits Resignation

, member of the United States House of Representatives. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Topics: States, Medicaid, Politics

Apr 01, 2013

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal‘s health secretary — Bruce Greenstein — is resigning amid a probe into a Medicaid contract he awarded to a former employer.

The Associated Press: La. Gov. Jindal’s Health Secretary Resigns As Probes Continue Into Medicaid Contract
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s health secretary and close ally, Bruce Greenstein, is resigning amid ongoing state and federal investigations into the awarding of a Medicaid contract to a company where Greenstein once worked, officials said Friday. The Jindal administration canceled the nearly $200 million contract with Maryland-based CNSI last week after details leaked of a federal grand jury subpoena involving the contract award (3/29).

New Orleans Times Picayune: DHH Secretary Bruce Greenstein Resigns In Wake Of Federal Investigation
Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein has resigned, a statement from Gov. Bobby Jindal’s office confirmed Friday. Speculation Greenstein would resign was rampant after news broke he allegedly used his influence as department head to secure a contract for a former employer. … Asked whether the hospitals secretary was forced out, Jindal spokesman Sean Lansing said in an email, “The governor did not ask Bruce to resign.” He later added that no one in the administration or among Jindal’s advisers asked Greenstein to resign (McGaughy, 3/29).

This is part of Kaiser Health News‘ Daily Report – a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day’s news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Report here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.

As Hyperactivity Diagnoses Rise, Concerns Grow About Overmedication Of Children

Topics: Public Health, Quality, Health Disparities

Apr 01, 2013

New CDC data shows that nearly one in five boys have a medical diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Other public health issues highlighted by news outlets include stroke risks in younger people, prescription-drug deaths and OSHA policies.

The New York Times: More Diagnoses Of Hyperactivity In New C.D.C. Data
Nearly one in five high school age boys in the United States and 11 percent of school-age children over all have received a medical diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, according to new data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These rates reflect a marked rise over the last decade and could fuel growing concern among many doctors that the A.D.H.D. diagnosis and its medication are overused in American children (Schwarz and Cohen, 3/31).

NPR: As Stroke Risk Rises Among Younger Adults, So Does Early Death
Most people (including a lot of doctors) think of a stroke as something that happens to old people. But the rate is increasing among those in their 50s, 40s and even younger (Knox, 4/1).

Los Angeles Times: Prescription Drug-Related Deaths Continue To Rise In U.S.
Despite efforts by law enforcement and public health officials to curb prescription drug abuse, drug-related deaths in the United States have continued to rise, the latest data show. Figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal that drug fatalities increased 3% in 2010, the most recent year for which complete data are available. Preliminary data for 2011 indicate the trend has continued (Glover and Girion, 3/29).

The New York Times: As OSHA Emphasizes Safety, Long-Term Health Risks Fester
OSHA, the watchdog agency that many Americans love to hate and industry often faults as overzealous, has largely ignored long-term threats. Partly out of pragmatism, the agency created by President Richard M. Nixon to give greater attention to health issues has largely done the opposite. OSHA devotes most of its budget and attention to responding to here-and-now dangers rather than preventing the silent, slow killers that, in the end, take far more lives. Over the past four decades, the agency has written new standards with exposure limits for 16 of the most deadly workplace hazards, including lead, asbestos and arsenic. But for the tens of thousands of other dangerous substances American workers handle each day, employers are largely left to decide what exposure level is safe (Urbina, 3/30).

English: Percent of Youth 4-17 ever diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: National Survey of Children’s Health, 2003 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Concerns Raised About Effect Of Medicare’s Readmission Penalty

English: Created by vectorizing Image:Medicare and Medicaid GDP Chart.png with Inkscape (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Image via CrunchBase

Topics: Delivery of Care, Health Costs, Hospitals, Marketplace, Medicare, States

Apr 01, 2013

The New York Times explores the new policy that penalizes hospitals if they have too many patients return within 30 days. Meanwhile, in Maryland, officials are weighing an ambitious plan to control hospital costs.

The New York Times: Hospitals Question Medicare Rules On Readmissions
While federal statistics show the effort is beginning to reduce costly and unnecessary readmissions, a growing chorus of critics is asking whether the government policy, which penalizes hospitals that have high readmission rates, is unfair. They are also questioning whether hospitals should be responsible for managing the personal lives of patients once they are released — or whether they should focus on other ways to improve care (Abelson, 3/29).

Kaiser Health News: Maryland’s Tough New Hospital Spending Proposal Seen As ‘Nationally Significant’
Maryland officials have proposed what analysts call the most ambitious initiative in the country to control soaring medical spending, a plan that would bring relief to employers and consumers footing the bill while bluntly challenging the state’s powerful hospital industry. The blueprint, which needs the Obama administration’s approval, would use Maryland’s unique rate-setting system to keep hospital spending from growing no faster than the overall economy — roughly half its recent rate of increase (Hancock, 4/1).

In other health industry news, federal officials release more details about hospital problems and a federal watchdog focuses on Medicare spending for equipment.

The Associated Press: Reports Of Hospital Mistakes Now Available Online
At St. Charles Medical Center in Bend, (Oregon) employees failed to notice that a cleaning machine was accidentally reprogrammed to leave out the disinfection cycle. Eighteen patients received colonoscopies with scopes that had been only rinsed with water and alcohol. … Hospitals make mistakes. When they are reported — by patients, employees or family members — state and federal officials investigate. Now, for the first time, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) has released those inspection reports for hospitals nationwide from the past two years. The release was in response to requests from the Association of Health Care Journalists, which has compiled them into a searchable database available to the public
(Peterson, 3/31).

Kaiser Health News: Capsules: IG Report Slaps Medicare For Not Recouping More Overpayment For Equipment
Medicare has made nearly $70 million in overpayments to suppliers of consumer medical equipment and more than half of that money is unlikely to be recovered, according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General (Carey, 4/1).

This is part of Kaiser Health News’ Daily Report – a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day’s news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Report here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.

States Boost Laws, Regulations Governing Abortion

English: Histogram of abortions by gestational age for the United States in 2004. Horizontal axis is weeks and vertical axis is thousands of abortions. Data is taken from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5609a1.htm#tab6 Updated version of Image:US abortion by gestational age 2002 histogram.svg, but data is almost identical. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Time series of induced abortions in Norway (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Topics: Delivery of Care, Women’s Health, Politics, States

Apr 01, 2013

States have passed a record number of abortion bills since 2011, including curbs on clinics and chemically induced abortions, and in North Dakota, a ban on abortions as early as six weeks. On the other side, New York and Washington are weighing measures to ensure abortion rights.

The Wall Street Journal: States Harden Views Over Laws Governing Abortion
States are becoming increasingly polarized over abortion, as some legislatures pass ever-tighter restrictions on the procedure while others consider stronger legal protections for it, advocates on both sides say. … At the same time, Washington state is weighing a measure that would require all insurers doing business in new health insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act to reimburse women for abortions. And New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo is seeking to update his state’s laws to clarify that women can obtain an abortion late in pregnancy if they have a medical reason (Radnofsky, 3/31).

The Associated Press: Abortion Clinics Need License, Check For Coercion
Michigan abortion clinics will need a state license and must check to make sure women are not being bullied or pressured into getting an abortion under a new law that took effect Sunday. Other regulations make clearer the proper disposal of fetal remains, after anti-abortion advocates expressed concern some were not disposed of with dignity (Eggert, 3/31).

In Montana, lawmakers are seeking to cut funding to some organizations that provide women’s health care.

The Associated Press: Women’s Health Funding Faces Cuts: House Budget Excludes $4.5M For Title X Funds
When Jennifer Strickley first learned she had ovarian cancer, it was Planned Parenthood that detected the disease. She had been going to a clinic in Billings (Montana) for about a decade, as the discounts on Pap tests, contraception and regular checkups provided an essential break for the single mom working without health insurance as a waitress to support her two kids … Strickley is one of 26,000 Montanans who rely upon clinics that receive federal family planning and preventive health funds in the form of Title X. … But the Montana House unanimously passed a state budget that excludes these funds — some $4.5 million — accounting for 30 percent of the budgets for 20 community clinics and five Planned Parenthood Clinics in the state (4/1).

This is part of Kaiser Health News‘ Daily Report – a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day’s news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Report here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.

Supporters Of Medicaid Expansion Fight To Be Heard In Some Statehouses

Topics: Medicaid, Politics, Health Costs, Health Reform, States

Apr 01, 2013

Mississippi House Democrats blocked passage of the state’s Medicaid budget Sunday to force a vote on expanding the program, while supporters and critics do battle in Missouri, Montana and Arkansas.

Clarion Ledger: Mississippi House Democrats Block Medicaid Budget
House Democrats on Sunday night blocked passage of the $840 million Medicaid budget, a move to try to force a vote on expanding the program and to block Gov. Phil Bryant from running it by executive order. “The federal government is offering venture capital to expand the largest industry we’ve got in this state, and we can’t even get a vote and debate on it,” said Rep. Steve Holland, D-Plantersville. “So we’re doing what we have to do. We are going to have an up-or-down vote on Medicaid expansion — it may be in a special session — or we are not going to have Medicaid” (Pender, 3/31).

The Associated Press: FACT CHECK: Corbett And The Medicaid Expansion
For now, (Pennsylvania) Gov. Tom Corbett has decided against embracing an expansion of Medicaid that could extend taxpayer-paid health care coverage to hundreds of thousands of low-income adult Pennsylvanians. The 2010 Affordable Care Act pledges to shoulder the lion’s share of the cost of the expansion, but Corbett says he is still concerned about the cost to Pennsylvania taxpayers and cautions that the federal government cannot always be trusted to deliver on its funding promises to states. Here is a look at the validity of some of his claims about the Medicaid expansion (Levy, 3/31).

The Associated Press/Kansas City Star: Medicaid Debate In Missouri Gets Hyperbolic
If Missouri expands Medicaid health coverage for lower-income adults, could it create a crisis for public schools? If Missouri fails to expand Medicaid, could it result in millions of Missourians‘ tax dollars going to health care in other states? In the tense Medicaid debate at the Missouri Capitol, both assertions have been put forth as plain facts by opponents or supporters of a plan that could add as many as 300,000 adults to the Medicaid rolls. But they might best be labeled as hyperbole (Lieb, 3/31).

Helena Independent Record: Democrats Vow To Pass Medicaid Expansion As Republicans Say It Will Blow State Budget
Last week, Republicans on two legislative committees used their majorities to kill Democrat-sponsored bills to expand the program starting in 2014. Gov. Steve Bullock and fellow Democrats vow to keep searching for a way to pass the expansion, although it could be difficult, as long as Republican majorities at the Legislature oppose it (Dennison, 3/31).

The Associated Press: Health Care, Tax Cuts Issues Colliding (AP Analysis)
How do you convince Republicans who took over the Arkansas Legislature by vowing to fight “Obamacare” to support government-subsidized health insurance? The same way you convince a Democratic governor who has said his budget can’t include more tax cuts to agree to a large package of reductions. As Arkansas lawmakers approach what could be the final weeks of this year’s session, it’s becoming clearer that proposals to expand health insurance to low-income workers and to cut $100 million in taxes are colliding (DeMillo, 3/31).

Baltimore Sun: Health Reform’s Changes Stir Worries As They Take Shape In Md.
State lawmakers put finishing touches last week on plans to apply federal health care reforms in Maryland come Jan. 1. But who becomes newly insured — and at what cost —still worries stakeholders as the state speeds toward becoming one of the first to adopt a revamped system. Under legislation passed by the House of Delegates and Senate, more low-income Marylanders would qualify for government-funded health care through Medicaid, and an existing tax on health insurers would sustain a new insurance marketplace once federal support wanes (Dance, 3/31).

This is part of Kaiser Health News‘ Daily Report – a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day’s news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Report here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.

Image via CrunchBase

GOP Opposition To Health Law Hurts Efforts To Court Hispanics

Obamacare Protest at Supreme Court (Photo credit: southerntabitha)

Topics: Health Costs, Insurance, Medicaid, Politics, Health Reform, States

Apr 01, 2013

The Los Angeles Times reports that Latinos, who have the lowest rates of health coverage in the country, are among the strongest supporters of the health law. Meanwhile, AP examines the hard opposition to the overhaul in the South, led by Republican governors representing some of the poorest and least healthy states.

Los Angeles Times: Healthcare An Obstacle As Republicans Court Latinos
As Republican leaders try to woo Latino voters with a new openness to legal status for the nation’s illegal immigrants, the party remains at odds with America‘s fastest-growing ethnic community on another key issue: healthcare. Latinos, who have the lowest rates of health coverage in the country, are among the strongest backers of President Obama’s healthcare law (Levey, 3/31).

The Associated Press: The South: A Near-Solid Block Against ‘Obamacare’
As more Republicans give in to President Barack Obama’s health-care overhaul, an opposition bloc remains across the South, including from governors who lead some of the nation’s poorest and unhealthiest states…So why are these states holding out? The short-term calculus seems heavily influenced by politics (Barrow, 3/31).

The Hill: GOP Seeks To Benefit From Sebelius Admission On Healthcare Cost Hikes
Republican campaign officials are claiming new momentum for 2014 after the Obama administration admitted that some consumers could see their health insurance premiums rise under healthcare reform. This week’s surprise concession from federal Health secretary Kathleen Sebelius played into the GOP’s No. 1 message against the Affordable Care Act — that it will raise healthcare costs. The remark triggered a rush of campaign messaging against vulnerable Democrats who supported healthcare reform (Viebeck, 3/31).

Federal Officials Look To Mass Marketing To Sell Health Law

Pete Souza, Official White House Photographer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Topics: Insurance, Medicaid, Politics, Health Reform, States

Apr 01, 2013

The administration faces a tough challenge to get the public to understand and accept the health law — and, then, to sign up the millions without coverage.

The Associated Press: Can Mass Marketing Heal The Splits On ‘Obamacare’?
How do you convince millions of average Americans that one of the most complex and controversial programs devised by government may actually be a good deal for them? With the nation still split over President Barack Obama’s health care law, the administration has turned to the science of mass marketing for help in understanding the lives of uninsured people, hoping to craft winning pitches for a surprisingly varied group in society (Alonso-Zaldivar, 4/1).

Kaiser Health News: Why Uninsured Might Not Flock To Health Law‘s Marketplaces
With almost one in five of its residents lacking health insurance, officials in Palm Beach County thought they had hit on a smart solution. The county launched a program that offered subsidized coverage to residents who couldn’t afford private insurance, but made too much to qualify for Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor. Enrollees would be able to buy policies for about $52 a month — far cheaper than what private insurers were offering. But a year after the program began, fewer than 500 people had signed up — less than a third of the number expected (Galewitz, 4/1).

NPR: Three Years On, States Still Struggle With Health Care Law Messaging
It is hard to imagine that after three years of acrimony and debate we could still be so confused about President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. … There are essentially three big pieces to the Affordable Care Act: the insurance reforms (also known as the patients’ bill of rights), quality and cost measures, and the health care mandate. …. For consumers, however, it doesn’t matter if you’re in Texas or California or anywhere else in the country, the law is clear: The uninsured are expected to get coverage by January. Whether those folks will be informed and ready by then is not so clear (Sullivan, 3/30).

The Medicare NewsGroup: Obama’s 2014 Budget Could Mean Significant Change For Medicare
On April 10, President Obama will enter the ongoing 2014 budget battle when the White House releases its budget blueprint, joining Senate Democrats and both parties in the House in a partisan scuffle over the nation’s fiscal future. If it’s anything like what the president put forth last year, the Medicare-related parts of the White House budget will focus on containing costs by reforming the Medicare payment system and reducing fraud and waste while maintaining the Traditional Medicare structure (Adamopoulos, 3/31).

Meanwhile, federal officials released rules Friday reiterating their plans for expanded Medicaid funding under the health law –

Modern Healthcare: CMS Considering Waivers For Private Coverage Medicaid Alternative
The Obama administration is showing willingness to let some states steer new Medicaid funding to private coverage in the new individual insurance marketplaces in order meet the coverage goals of the healthcare reform law. The CMS will consider granting a “limited number” of state waivers for demonstration that test what happens when states give Medicaid enrollees the option of taking a subsidy to buy a private plan, according to new guidance issued Friday (Blesch, 3/31).

Bloomberg: Some U.S. States Can Shift Medicaid Funds To Exchanges
Low-income people may get Medicaid money to buy health insurance from private plans such as UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH) or Humana Inc. (HUM) in a “limited number” of states, U.S. officials said. Arkansas and Ohio have asked President Barack Obama’s administration to allow them to adjust how Medicaid dollars are used (Wayne, 3/30).

The Hill: Obama Administration Finalizes Key Affordable Care Act Rule
The federal government will reimburse states for 100 percent of the costs for some newly eligible Medicaid patients, under new regulations finalized Friday as part of the Obama administration’s implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The healthcare law authorizes states to expand Medicaid to adults under 65 with incomes up to 135 percent of the federal poverty level — roughly $15,000 for a single adult in 2012 (Goad, 3/29).

This is part of Kaiser Health News’ Daily Report – a summary of health policy coverage from more than 300 news organizations. The full summary of the day’s news can be found here and you can sign up for e-mail subscriptions to the Daily Report here. In addition, our staff of reporters and correspondents file original stories each day, which you can find on our home page.

No Rate Shock Seen In Proposed 2014 Premiums In Vermont

English: Barack Obama speech “Fighting for Health Insurance Reform” delivered 8 March 2010 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Phil Galewitz

April 1st, 2013, 12:55 PM

After years of anticipation, Vermont became the first state Monday to publish proposed 2014 individual health insurance rates under the federal health law. Despite Republican and insurers’ predictions, there was no “rate shock” in the new premiums, according to the Vermont governor’s office and insurance representatives.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont and MVP Health Care submitted plans with monthly premiums that range from an average of $265 for catastrophic coverage for young adults to $609 for platinum coverage, which has the lowest cost-sharing among four categories of plans.

“We think this is a positive development for folks who were worried about what rates would look like in 2014,” said Kevin Goddard, spokesman for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont, which is the state’s dominant commercial carrier, controlling about two-thirds of the market. He confirmed rates are similar to what the company now offers.

“These rates are comparable to what’s on the market today and that’s good news,” said Robin Lunge, director of health reform in the Vermont governor’s office. She said it’s difficult to do an apples-to-apples comparison because of the many benefit changes required under President Barack Obama’s health overhaul.  These changes, which take effect Jan. 1, include an end to annual lifetime limits in policies and a prohibition on denying coverage to people with medical problems.

Vermont may not be the best barometer of the impact of the heath overhaul on premiums, however,  because the state already prohibits insurers from using health status to determine an individual’s premiums. It is one of only seven states in the country which have so-called community rating regulations.

Vermont also requires prices to be the same regardless of person’s age. Two of the health law’s biggest changes include prohibiting insurers from using health status to determine premiums and prohibiting insurers from charging older people more than three times the rates of younger people.

Insurance industry predictions of rate shock are more likely in the majority of states that currently allow insurers to set premiums based on an individual’s health status, Goddard said.

Starting Oct. 1, individual and small group coverage in the state will be sold on a new online health insurance marketplace as required under the Affordable Care Act. Health insurers nationwide have just begun submitting their pricing and benefit information to states and the federal government for policies which will be sold in the marketplaces, or exchanges. Most people who buy on the new marketplaces are expected to be eligible for government subsidies.

Vermont insurance regulators still must approve the insurers’ proposed rates. In January 2013, the state approved about a 10 percent rate increase on the individual market after carriers asked for about a 13 percent increase, Lunge said.

All the health plans in the new marketplaces are standardized into platinum, gold, silver and bronze categories depending on their actuarial value so consumers have an easier time comparing.

The Vermont 2014 annual premiums for bronze plans range from $4,200 to $4,440, compared to a Congressional Budget Office estimate of $4,500 for an individual, according to Carolyn Pearson of consulting firm Avalere Health.

Mary Eversole, executive director of the Vermont Insurance Agents Association, said she was surprised the rate increases were not higher. At first blush, she said the 2014 proposed rates appear to be about 10 percent higher than this year. Premiums for the gold and platinum  policies appear lower than similar products, but silver and bronze policies are higher.

Officials from MVP were not available for immediate comment.

State Roundup: Court To Hear Calif. Inmate Mental Health Case

Topics: Hospitals, States, Medicaid, Mental Health, Insurance, Politics

Mar 27, 2013

News outlets report on health care developments in California, Georgia, Louisiana, Minnesota, New York, Oregon and Texas.

The Associated Press: Court Considers Calif. Prison Mental Health Care
A federal judge in Sacramento is set to hear arguments Wednesday over Gov. Jerry Brown’s push to regain state control of inmate mental health care after 18 years of federal oversight and billions of dollars spent to improve treatment. Lawyers representing the state argue that California is now providing a constitutional level of care to its prison inmates, while attorneys for the inmates say more improvement is needed (Thompson, 3/27).

The Associated Press/Washington Post: La. Health Secretary A No-Show At His Department’s Budget Hearing Amid Ongoing Investigations
Lawmakers seeking more information about the Jindal administration’s cancellation of a nearly $200 million Medicaid contract amid an ongoing criminal investigation were told Tuesday that administration leaders were advised against discussing it. The now-scrapped contract for Medicaid claims processing and bill payment had been awarded to CNSI, a Maryland-based company that once employed Gov. Bobby Jindal’s health secretary, Bruce Greenstein (3/26).

Kaiser Health News: Economic Changes Hurt The Bottom Line For Rural Ga. Hospitals
In the small Georgia town of Demorest, Habersham Medical Center, like many rural hospitals, has seen its patient base change in a way that hurts its bottom line. As unemployment in the northeast Georgia mountains remains stubbornly high, more of the hospital’s patients have no health insurance. Among those patients with private coverage, an increasing number have high-deductible policies, which means that patients must pay all or a large portion of the bills out of pocket. And a large share of patients have Medicaid, the federal-state program for low-income people that often doesn’t reimburse enough to cover the cost of services, hospital officials say (Miller, 3/27).

The Texas Tribune: House Budget Spends More On Schools, Less On Medicaid
More than $1.6 billion and disagreements on how much Texas should spend on public education and Medicaid separate the budgets proposed by the House and Senate. The Senate budget proposal, passed 29-2 by the upper chamber last week, spends $195.5 billion, a 2.9 percent increase from the current two-year budget (Batheja, 3/27).

The New York Times: Plan To Allow Investment In 2 Hospitals Is Dropped
A proposal to allow for-profit investment in two hospitals in New York State has been dropped from the budget, an unexpected setback to a push to open health care systems to private investors for the first time (Bernstein, 3/26).

Pioneer Press: Legislative Auditor Assails MinnesotaCare Verifications
The state Department of Human Services has failed for years to comply with federal and state requirements to verify income and Social Security numbers reported by recipients of MinnesotaCare health insurance, the legislative auditor concluded in a report released Tuesday, March 26. The requirements are in place to guard against fraud (Belden, 3/26).

MPR News: Possible Fairview Health Takeover Raises Alarms
University of Minnesota officials are raising concerns over a possible merger between Fairview Health Services and South Dakota-based Sanford Health. Sanford, which has facilities in eight states, has expanded into parts of Minnesota in recent years. Fairview controls the University of Minnesota’s hospital. “The university educates and trains about 70 percent of the medical doctors in Minnesota, We are the only school in Minnesota that has schools of dentistry and pharmacy,” said Mark Rotenberg general counsel for the university (Mador, 3/26).

MPR News: Mayo’s Saint Marys Hospital A Priority For Expansion
Saint Marys Hospital is usually a busy place, so much so that it is chronically short of administrative and research space. Doctors hustle across the Mayo Clinic hospital, which extends more than a city block, and emergency room nurses push carts from one patient room to another. Shared offices are the norm. … To solve its space woes, the Mayo Clinic plans to spend $3 billion to expand in Rochester in the next 20 years. It’s asking the state of Minnesota to pitch in $500 million to pay for public parking, transportation, transit, utilities and other improvements. (Baier, 3/27).

The Oregonian: Washington Health Care Bills That Would Benefit Vancouver Residents Move Out Of Committee
The House Health Care and Wellness Committee on Tuesday approved two bills aimed at making health care easier to obtain for those who live in border communities like Vancouver. Senate Bill 5524 would allow Washington pharmacists to fill prescriptions written by out-of-state physician assistants. Currently, Washington pharmacies may fill prescriptions written by doctors, dentists and others who are not licensed in the state. The legislation would expand this list to include physician assistants (Marum, 3/26).

The University campus of the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview (Photo credit: Wikipedia)