Current Industry News

Judge blames California officials for lack of prison health funds
SAN FRANCISCO -- U. S. District Judge Thelton Henderson scolded state officials today for refusing to furnish $8 billion requested by the overseer of prison healthcare to improve the medical system in state lockups.

Mass. physician shortage worsens
Twelve physician specialities are in seriously short supply in Massachusetts, according to a new industry study, with three new categories added to the list just this year.

5 Democratic governors urge Obama health plan
Five Democratic governors made a plea yesterday in Philadelphia for Barack Obama's health plan, saying John McCain's proposal would weaken the employer-based system that covers 158 million Americans.

Child welfare privatization scrutinized
The Nebraska Health and Human Services Department's spotty track record on overseeing contracts has many advocates for children concerned about recommendations to privatize most child welfare services.

Cost fears weigh on Rendell's health plan
Pennsylvania's darkening economic climate hasn't stopped Gov. Ed Rendell from pushing for a new program to help residents without health insurance.

Restaurants back year-old smoking ban
Industry and health groups in Tennessee say the vast majority of restaurants chose to ban smoking a year ago rather than banish those under 21 years old, and most appear glad they did.

Study recommends Arkansas center for dental education
Facing a shortage of dentists, Arkansas should spend $1.8 million over the next two years to open a center that would plan for a college of dentistry, a study presented to legislators Monday recommends.

Leaders may call lawmakers into emergency session as new state budget plunges into the red
The state budget approved only weeks ago is already falling into the red, and lawmakers may be forced to return to Sacramento this month to make emergency spending cuts and take other measures to keep California from running out of cash. (Also see: CA: Cash-strapped California looks to its pension funds)

Governor may call special session to deal with rising deficit
With the ink barely dry on the current state budget, turmoil in the financial markets and flagging tax revenues will force Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers to reopen talks Wednesday on the spending blueprint he signed two weeks ago.

Voting drive returns to VA after feds lift ban
WEST HAVEN, Conn. — Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz and volunteers with the League of Women Voters will be registering voters today at the Veterans Affairs medical center for the first time since a federal ban on the practice was lifted last month.

Court allows family to sue vaccine maker
The Georgia Supreme Court allowed an Atlanta couple's lawsuit against a vaccine manufacturer to go forward, upholding a first-of-its-kind ruling by an appellate court that had drawn fierce opposition from the vaccine industry.

Pharmacists pay for state bungling
Illinois pharmacists are stuck helping pay for the Blagojevich administration's bungled health care program expansion.

Curbs sought on psychiatric drugs given to children
Kentucky's Medicaid program has spent more than $40 million since 2001 filling prescriptions for certain powerful drugs that help youngsters with emotional problems, but also could pose risks for their physical health.

Controversial legislator loses committee job
A Metairie lawmaker who suggested paid sterilization of poor women as a way to shrink the welfare roles was ousted Monday from a House leadership position.

LaBruzzo stripped of post on House health committee
Rep. John LaBruzzo, R-Metairie, who created a furor last month with his proposal to pay the poor to be sterilized, was removed Monday from his position as vice chairman of the House Health and Welfare Committee.

Maryland to revise medevac guidelines
In a move that could reduce the number of medevac flights in Maryland, state emergency medical officials announced yesterday that ambulance teams will be required to consult with doctors before deciding whether flying some accident victims to a trauma center is better than driving them to a local hospital.

State's helicopter trauma transports getting a second look
The heads of the state trauma center and emergency medical system were expected this afternoon to call for a review of the criteria for flying patients aboard state police helicopters.

Coalition pushes to keep drink tax
A coalition that is trying to convince voters to keep a newly enacted tax on beer, wine and soda urged Mainers on Monday to find another way to show their frustration with taxes, rather than repeal funding that could provide health coverage for Mainers.

ND Dem governor candidate unveils health pla
Democratic governor candidate Tim Mathern says the state needs to make a stronger effort to make health insurance more widely available.

ND Gov offers child-care initiatives
Gov. John Hoeven is proposing new state aid for preschools, and subsidies to encourage the development of child-care centers.

Woman feared boy she left at hospital
Sunday started out beautifully, the Lincoln grandmother said.

Former Gov. Whitman uninvited from school forum
PRINCETON, N.J. - A Roman Catholic school in Princeton canceled a women's leadership forum because a bishop objected to the keynote speaker , former Gov. Christie Whitman.

Testimony of slush fund and "payback time" at Bryant trial
The state treasurer's office had almost no authority over who received millions of dollars from a special-grant program, even though the office administered the money, according to testimony in federal court yesterday.

Congress boosts mental health law
Advocates for mental health services feared the mental health parity law passed by Congress last week might weaken New York's two-year-old Timothy's Law, but a sense of relief is spreading as they sift through the legislation.

EPA switches to long-term focus on Behr site cleanup
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it's changing gears from working on an emergency action that safeguards public health to a long-term study of how to clean up groundwater contamination in the vicinity of the Behr Dayton Thermal Systems Plant.

Pa. lawmakers warn of huge budget deficit
The deteriorating economy and rising cost of such big-ticket items as health care and prisons is leading the state government on a path to a massive deficit that will require a tax increase to erase, two senior state legislators said Monday.

Exceptions in abortion ban proposal key, scholars say
If the abortion measure fails in South Dakota, it might be defeated by voters who are angry the issue is on the ballot again, a political science professor says.

Supreme Court opens its new term with a tobacco fraud case
WASHINGTON — Smokers who say they were defrauded by tobacco companies that marketed "light" cigarettes faced a skeptical Supreme Court on Monday in the first argument of the court's new term.

Health-care revolution needed, group says
DEER VALLEY, Utah -- A reformation of the nation's health-care system is all fine and good, but a revolution is what it will take, say a group of top-tier executives, medical school administrators and leading academics who began a two-day summit here Monday.

Va. official to issue heart health challenge
Lieutenant Governor Bill Bolling wants you to get off the couch and get moving.

Parents' income, education affect kids' health
A new report finds that the health of American children is a matter of concern, made worse by the disparities that exist between kids in low- and high-income families. Children’s parents and their surroundings have a huge effect on whether they grow up healthy, and whether they live past their first year.

States act to cushion Wall Street meltdown
Cascading economic problems flowing from the crisis on Wall Street are forcing states to urgently redraw their financial blueprints for the rest of this year and next to cushion the impact of the credit squeeze, staggering paper losses for millions of ordinary Americans and soaring energy prices.

State jobless funds are running dry
As claims for benefits rise because of the economic downturn, many states are trying to figure out how to pay unemployed workers.

State workers face bleak budget picture
(Updated 11:40 a.m. EST, Oct. 3, 2008)

The economic downturn has hit states hard, and among those feeling the effects are state employees, whose salaries are being frozen, who are retiring before they wanted to, who are being asked to take furloughs, or unpaid days off, and who, in an estimated 7,000 cases, have been laid off.

At high court, states' authority in question
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday (Oct. 6) begins a new term that so far lacks the controversy of last term’s politically explosive cases on gun control, the death penalty and voter-identification laws, but that still is grabbing the attention of states.

Medicaid rolls, spending up in bleak economy
After two years of flat Medicaid enrollment — the same two years which also saw the smallest spending increases for the federal-state health insurance program for the poor — the failing economy has led to a dramatic growth both in enrollment and spending, according to a new report.

Medicaid: Biggest insurer is a budget buster
Medicaid went largely unnoticed when it first came into being in mid-1965, meriting only passing mention from President Lyndon B. Johnson at a bill-signing ceremony in Independence, Mo., where he trumpeted passage of the Medicare health plan for Americans over age 65. But four decades later, Medicaid’s numbers are eye-popping. It is now the nation’s largest health insurance program, covering 59 million poor people, or one in six Americans, according to the National Association of State Budget Officers. It pays for 37 percent of all births in the United States and helps foot the bills for more than 60 percent of all patients in nursing homes.

Visit the Stateline.org Health Care Page

Georgia To Expand HMO Fee To Fund Medicaid, PeachCare

The Georgia Department of Community Health plans to expand a quality assessment fee to about a dozen additional HMOs in the state to help fund the state's Medicaid and PeachCare programs, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. PeachCare is the state's version of SCHIP. The state in 2005 began charging the fees to three national insurance companies that provide benefits for Medicaid and PeachCare beneficiaries. The fee generates $143 million annually and draws down $90 million in federal matching funds.

Efforts To Reduce Medicare Fraud In States

CMS on Monday announced new efforts to detect and combat Medicare fraud committed by durable medical equipment suppliers and home health care agencies, CongressDaily reports. Under the plan, the agency will expand a recovery audit contractor program nationwide. The program ran as a three-year demonstration project in six states and recovered $900 million in overpayments (Edney, CongressDaily, 10/6). Contractors will focus on companies and individuals whose Medicare billings are higher than those submitted by the majority of providers and suppliers in a community.

Newly Insured Massachusetts Residents Seek ED Care

Massachusetts residents enrolled in the state-subsidized health insurance program Commonwealth Care continued to seek routine care at hospital emergency departments at a rate 14% higher than state residents overall, according to data compiled by the state at the request of the Boston Globe. The state data show that Commonwealth Care beneficiaries used the ED at an annual rate of 557 visits per 1,000 members between Nov. 1, 2006, and Dec. 31, 2007, compared with the statewide average of 488 visits.

New Medicare Rule Ending Payments For Preventable Errors

The following summarizes newspaper editorials related to Medicare's new rule -- which took effect last week -- that ends payments to hospitals for additional care resulting from "reasonably preventable" errors.

Potential Effects Of Public Health Insurance Program

"Can a Public Insurance Plan Increase Competition and Lower the Costs of Health Reform?" Urban Institute: The paper examines the argument that a The paper examines the argument that a public health insurance plan that competes with private insurers within an organized health insurance market would have lower administrative costs and more ability to control provider payment rates.

Florida State Health Program Delayed

Florida Gov. Charlie Crist's (R) Cover Florida program and two other proposed measures intended to expand health care coverage to more state residents have stalled, Florida Health News reports. State officials on Wednesday were expected to announce which of the nine health insurance companies, which submitted bids to offer basic low-cost health plans to residents, had been chosen as part of Crist's program.

Examining Lack Of Health Insurance Among Home Health Aides

The Philadelphia Inquirer on Monday as part of a series titled "Falling Through: Casualties of the Heath Insurance Crisis" examined the lack of health insurance among many home health aides.

CMS To Announce New Medicare Anti-Fraud Efforts

Acting CMS Administrator Kerry Weems on Monday plans to announce new anti-fraud measures aimed at curbing the number of inappropriate Medicare payments, with some measures specifically targeting Miami-area home health care agencies, USA Today reports.

Medicare spending on home health care in Miami-Dade County this fiscal year is on track to cost an estimated $1.3 billion, a 1,300% increase over five years, government data show. Medicare home health care costs in the Miami area have increased by 20 times the national average in the past five years.

McCain's Proposal It Will Increase Taxes, Cause Some Employers To Drop Worker Health Plans

Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) on Friday released a new advertisement about health care that includes clips from the recent vice presidential debate between Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Biden (Del.) and Republican vice presidential nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the New York Times reports (Nagourney/Zeleny, New York Times, 10/5).

Health Care, Insurance Sink To Low Priority In VP Debates

The anticipated VP debate has ended and both candidates held their own, but there was barely a mention of one of the most pressing issues in the United States? health care. Health care inequities and the rising costs of health insurance plans have been a concern of Americans for a long time. I know the Wall Street meltdown has eclipsed most everything but I once you describe the ?orgy of Wall Street and the greed of big business? for the 10th time, it?s time to move on and talk about your policies for change.