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Medicaid is the United States health program for eligible individuals and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the states and federal government, and is managed by the states.

Viewpoints: 'Blunders' on Ebola; McConnell's strange logic on Obamacare; temporary victory for Texas women

The point of this is not to flog Presbyterian, though a few lashes might help snap [Daniel] Varga and other administrators back to reality.

17 Oct 2014

Kentucky's health exchange plays big in Senate race

The state's online insurance marketplace has proven popular, creating difficulties for the Republican incumbent, Sen. Mitch McConnell, who has vowed to repeal Obamacare , and giving a boost to Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes.

17 Oct 2014

Ebola worries focus attention on public health leaders; administration bolsters its response

With questions emerging about the handling of Ebola patients, a House subcommittee is holding a hearing that will feature testimony from CDC Director Tom Frieden and Dr. Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer and senior executive vice president at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

17 Oct 2014

Study: Nursing home care quality not associated with risk of hospital readmission or death

Nursing home care quality does not impact the likelihood of patients being readmitted to the hospital or dying within 30 days of discharge from hospital to nursing home, according to a new analysis of Medicare data and nursing home performance measures by Penn Medicine researchers.

16 Oct 2014

PAP therapy reduces 30-day hospital readmission rates in cardiac patients with sleep apnea

A study of hospitalized cardiac patients is the first to show that effective treatment with positive airway pressure therapy reduces 30-day hospital readmission rates and emergency department visits in patients with both heart disease and sleep apnea.

16 Oct 2014

Viewpoints: Health law undercuts labor markets; the surprising foes on Calif. Prop 45

A report out today from the Republican staff of the Senate Budget Committee highlights a critical point about Obamacare: The law's negative effect on labor markets helps explain why it will increase deficits by $131 billion over the next 10 years. This finding stands in stark contrast to Democrats' repeated assertions that the law will reduce the deficit. The public dialogue on Obamacare has thus far largely focused on how the law affects premiums and limits access to certain health insurance plans or doctors.

16 Oct 2014

Elsevier announces availability of Mosby's Home Health Care

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the availability of Mosby's Home Health Care. This resource combines trusted home healthcare nursing content with convenient competency management functionality to provide a single comprehensive resource for home healthcare nurses, nurse educators and other home care professionals.

16 Oct 2014

Federal prescription-subsidy program improves drug adherence in breast cancer patients

A federal prescription-subsidy program for low-income women on Medicare significantly improved their adherence to hormone therapy to prevent the recurrence of breast cancer after surgery.

16 Oct 2014

State highlights: Ariz. agrees to settlement on health care for prisoners

Prop. 46 would make it mandatory for doctors to consult the database. California would become one of nine states requiring doctors to check before prescribing painkillers to first-time patients. After passing similar laws, Tennessee and New York saw a significant reduction in the number of narcotics prescriptions written. Studies have verified the correlation, but acknowledge that drug abusers may be turning to street drugs, like heroin. Many doctors in California like the database. Some have called it 'indispensable.' But they don't like being told how to practice medicine (Dembosky, 10/14).

16 Oct 2014

GOP maverick embraces Medicaid expansion

The Washington Post examines the efforts by Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a Republican, to redefine the GOP. While touting party orthodoxy on economic matters, he has embraced his own version of compassionate conservatism, among other things, implementing the health law's Medicaid expansion. And he is sailing to re-election in a key battleground state.

16 Oct 2014

Viewpoints: Health law opposition not propelling GOP; keep politics out of the fight against Ebola

As recently as April, Obamacare was going to be the silver bullet for Republicans in this year's midterm elections. The leader of conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity said his plan was to make Obamacare "the No. 1 issue in the country." Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declared that the law would be "a huge disaster in 2014" and the deciding factor in November. Well, that was then. Now, three weeks from Election Day, some GOP challengers trying to knock off Democratic incumbent senators have scaled back their anti-Obamacare ads in favor of new targets such as the economy and national security (10/13).

15 Oct 2014

State highlights: Supreme Court to hear N.C. scope-of-practice case; states weigh costs of new hepatitis C drugs

The Supreme Court on Tuesday will consider who can whiten teeth in North Carolina, a seemingly small decision that could have major implications for scope-of-practice throughout the country. In North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners v. Federal Trade Commission, the justices will weigh whether the state dental board's decisions - in this case, a decision to not allow anyone but a dentist to whiten teeth - are immune from antitrust protections typically granted to state agencies (Haberkorn, 10/13).

15 Oct 2014

Medicaid expansion plans, debates continue to roil GOP officials, cause concern for hospital execs

News outlets offer updates regarding Medicaid expansion efforts in Indiana and Ohio.

15 Oct 2014

McConnell's mixed message on Kynect, the state's health exchange

During a debate last night with Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the state's online insurance marketplace could stay but the Affordable Care Act should be repealed. In addition, news outlets report on Senate races in Arkansas and South Dakota.

15 Oct 2014

In Md. gubernatorial debate, Democrat defends his role in botched health marketplace

Anthony Brown, the state's lieutenant governor who oversaw the development of the state's online insurance marketplace, acknowledges the technical problems but points to tens of thousands of Marylanders who now have health insurance.

15 Oct 2014

Group Health's HMO Medicare Advantage plan earns 5-Star rating from CMS

Group Health's HMO Medicare Advantage plan has earned the highest rating available from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Group Health is one of only 16 plans in the country to receive this rating for 2015.

14 Oct 2014

Viewpoints: Ebola myths; Sen. McCain's 'opportunistic alarmism'; Gov. Jindal on CDC's misspent resources

Hubris is the greatest danger in wealthy countries - a sort of smug assumption that advanced technologies and emergency-preparedness plans guarantee that Ebola and other germs will not spread. It was hubris that left Toronto's top hospitals battling SARS in 2003, long after the virus was conquered in poorer Vietnam. It was hubris that led the World Health Assembly in 2013 to cut the WHO's outbreak-response budget in favor of more programs to treat cancer and heart disease.

14 Oct 2014

State highlights: Md., Minn. see small business health insurance rate changes; Texas sues AstraZeneca over Seroquel marketing

Some small businesses in Maryland will see a small drop in health insurance premiums next year, while others will pay as much as 11 percent more to cover their workers, according to rates released by state regulators Friday. The rates, which go into effect in January, only apply to small firms with up to 50 employees, and not to large or self-insured firms or individuals buying coverage on the state's health insurance exchange. Evergreen Health Cooperative sought no rate increase, and Aetna Health Inc. will raise rates only slightly, according to the rate information released by the Maryland Insurance Administration. Some UnitedHealthcare premiums will drop by about 2.5 percent (Cohn, 10/10).

14 Oct 2014

Nursing home chain agrees to pay $38M to settle government poor care claims

Extendicare, which owns 150 nursing homes in 11 states and denied any wrongdoing, was accused of inappropriate billing and providing inadequate care.

14 Oct 2014

Medicaid backlogs persist, raising concerns as enrollment season nears

The Wall Street Journal reports that hundreds of thousands of people still don't officially have the Medicaid coverage they signed up for. Some of them began the process in late 2013. In other Medicaid news, debate in Mississippi continues regarding whether the state should pursue the expansion of the health insurance program for low-income and disabled people.

14 Oct 2014

Medicaid News and Research

Viewpoints: 'Blunders' on Ebola; McConnell's strange logic on Obamacare; temporary victory for Texas women

Kentucky's health exchange plays big in Senate race

Ebola worries focus attention on public health leaders; administration bolsters its response

Study: Nursing home care quality not associated with risk of hospital readmission or death

PAP therapy reduces 30-day hospital readmission rates in cardiac patients with sleep apnea

Viewpoints: Health law undercuts labor markets; the surprising foes on Calif. Prop 45

Elsevier announces availability of Mosby's Home Health Care

Federal prescription-subsidy program improves drug adherence in breast cancer patients

State highlights: Ariz. agrees to settlement on health care for prisoners

GOP maverick embraces Medicaid expansion

Viewpoints: Health law opposition not propelling GOP; keep politics out of the fight against Ebola

State highlights: Supreme Court to hear N.C. scope-of-practice case; states weigh costs of new hepatitis C drugs

Medicaid expansion plans, debates continue to roil GOP officials, cause concern for hospital execs

McConnell's mixed message on Kynect, the state's health exchange

In Md. gubernatorial debate, Democrat defends his role in botched health marketplace

Group Health's HMO Medicare Advantage plan earns 5-Star rating from CMS

Viewpoints: Ebola myths; Sen. McCain's 'opportunistic alarmism'; Gov. Jindal on CDC's misspent resources

State highlights: Md., Minn. see small business health insurance rate changes; Texas sues AstraZeneca over Seroquel marketing

Nursing home chain agrees to pay $38M to settle government poor care claims

Medicaid backlogs persist, raising concerns as enrollment season nears

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