Regulators Penalize Some Maryland Hospitals For Complication Rates
A Maryland program to curb hospital infection rates is showing signs of success, but nine hospitals still fell short last year and were penalized a total of $2.1 million.
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When Care Is Split Between Medicare And Medicaid: KHN Interview With Melanie Bella
Melanie Bella heads the new federal office that seeks to help people whose coverage is often fragmented because they qualify for both programs and to save the government money by streamlining that coverage.
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Many Americans Incorrectly Believe Health Law Has Been Repealed
Nearly a year after passage of the health care overhaul law, barely half of Americans know the law remains intact, a Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows.
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Opinion Column
Medical Liability Reform Should Be Real And Effective
As Congress wrestles with medical liability reform, more than 40 years of experience with California’s cap on non-economic damages offers evidence that this approach is an effective way to achieve the goal of reducing health care costs while preserving sufficient deterrence in the legal system.
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Opinion Column
After The Deluge: Health Reform Without An Individual Mandate
As challenges to the health law’s individual mandate wind their way through the courts, it is important to focus on the real question: what happens to the health law if this provision is ultimately struck down?
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Judges Reviewing Health Law Say Penalty Is Not A Tax
Congress took great pains to ensure that the penalty imposed on people who don’t get health insurance was not called a tax in the health law. This could make it tough for the Justice Department to argue that it is a tax.
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Pennsylvania Closing State Health Plan For Low-Income Adults
Few options are available for the 42,000 people losing coverage.
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State Worker Backlash Spreads Across The Country
The public employee backlash against Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s plan to help balance the state’s budget by imposing higher health care and pension co-pays is spreading across the nation, as newly-elected conservative governors seek to roll back benefits granted during better economic times.
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GOP Counts The Ways To Defund Health Law
House Republicans have come up with more than half a dozen ways to throttle spending on overhaul. Democrats in the Senate can block them, and President Obama still wields the veto pen.
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Republicans Take Steps To Defund Health Law Implementation, Planned Parenthood – Health On The Hill Transcript
House Republicans passed measures to defund implementation of the health law, while the Obama administration fires back, rescinding a regulation they say could jeopardize patient access to care.
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Sebelius Squad’s Mission: Medicaid Savings
The Obama administration is dispatching aides to states to offer advice on holding down spending on the program for the poor.
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Health On The Hill: Republicans Take Steps To Defund Health Law Implementation, Planned Parenthood
As part of legislation to keep the government funded through March 4, House Republicans passed a series of amendments aimed at defunding implementation of the health care law. Separately, the Obama administration rescinded part of a 2008 conscience clause regulation they said could impact patients’ access to medical care.
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New Contraception Rules Spark ‘Conscience Clause’ Debate
Religious exemptions that allow health care workers to decline certain services to patients if they have a religious exemption should not include contraception. That’s the bottom line of the administration’s new regulations on the “conscience clause.”
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Opinion Column
All Governors Should Just Say No To ObamaCare
Those who believe the health law is unconstitutional have a solemn obligation not to implement it.
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Health Law Forces Changes To Reduce Hospitals Readmissions
20 percent of Medicare patients are back in the hospital within 30 days, a trend that endangers patients and raises health costs.
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States Pushing Managed Long-Term Care For Elderly And Disabled Medicaid Patients
Some patient advocates, as well as the nursing home industry, object to using managed care for such vulnerable patients, but health plans say they can provide quality services while holding down costs.
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Texas Presses For Money-Saving Medicaid Changes
The Lone Star State isn’t seeking to opt out of Medicaid anymore, but it’s joining other states in pressing Washington for more flexibility in running the program.
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Hot-Button Medicaid Bill
In addition to shifting nearly all Medicaid patients to HMOs and other managed care, the Senate’s proposal would cap spending, require plans to bid for business and impose $100 fees on patients who abuse the emergency room.
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States Seeking To Cut Medicaid Rolls Get Some Help
Federal officials are walking a fine line trying to satisfy the demands of budget-strapped governors who want to cut their Medicaid programs.
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Hardliners On Health Law: End It, Don’t Mend It
The conservative group FreedomWorks recommends a system of vouchers to replace Medicare, Medicaid and provisions of the new health law.
