Medicaid News and Research

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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: Medicare's 'doctor payment problem'; a 'wasted advantage'; 'puzzling' Rand numbers

The news that a small percentage of the country's physicians collected billions of dollars from Medicare in a single year may or may not be a testament to individual greed; some of the top recipients are under investigation for allegedly bilking the system, while others work long hours delivering costly care.

11 Apr 2014

Details -- and limits -- of Medicare billing data emerge

News outlets begin to analyze the wealth of information now available as a result of Wednesday's release by the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services of a trove of payment records. They also note the limits.

11 Apr 2014

Oregon, Minnesota exchanges weigh next steps

Officials overseeing the troubled exchanges examine what went wrong this year and debate how to proceed. Meanwhile, a small business exchange in Georgia gets few enrollees and The Denver Post reports that more residents signed up for Medicaid than for private insurance.

11 Apr 2014

First Edition: April 10, 2014

Today's headlines include a range of stories taking additional looks at the Medicare physician payment data released yesterday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

10 Apr 2014

NextGen earns ONC 2014 Edition criteria certification for Emergency Department Solution

NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, LLC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Quality Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: QSII) and a leading provider of healthcare information systems and connectivity solutions, announced today that NextGen® Emergency Department Solution version 6.0 is compliant with the ONC 2014 Edition criteria and was certified as an electronic health record (EHR) Module on March 7, 2014 by the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT®), an ONC-ACB, in accordance with the applicable Hospital certification criteria adopted by the Secretary of Health and Human Services.

10 Apr 2014

Affordable Care Act may alter costs for Automobile and liability insurance

The expansion of health insurance accomplished under the Affordable Care Act may alter costs for several major types of liability insurance, although any such changes are likely to be modest, according to a new RAND Corporation report.

10 Apr 2014

Viewpoints: Sebelius' questionable arithmetic; Rand finds 9.3 million gained insurance; new numbers on your doctor

In setting the 2015 calendar parameters for health plans and employers, Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, quietly did some creative but questionable arithmetic that forced taxpayers to give still more help to businesses and people who buy health insurance (Casey B. Mulligan, 4/9).

10 Apr 2014

Va. Senate sends budget with Medicaid expansion to House

A key Republican leader says, however, that the House will not take up that measure. In Georgia, protesters resume demands for Medicaid expansion, and Sen. Mary Landrieu encourages lawmakers in Louisiana to move forward on the effort there.

10 Apr 2014

Johns Hopkins student receives 2014 Excellence in Public Health Award

Ramy El-Diwany, a fifth-year M.D./Ph.D. student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has won a 2014 Excellence in Public Health Award from the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) Physician Professional Advisory Committee for his contributions to community health services.

10 Apr 2014

Democrats and GOP lock horns over Paul Ryan's budget

Democrats and Republicans clashed Tuesday over the proposals in Paul Ryan's budget which includes $5 trillion in cuts over the next decade to several programs, including Medicaid. It also would repeal the health law.

10 Apr 2014

CMS releases trove of Medicare physician billing data

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is making this information available for the first time in 35 years. Meanwhile, in their first run at the data, news outlets report that a small number of doctors account for a large share of Medicare costs.

10 Apr 2014

Portrait of newly insured takes shape

Early enrollees in the health law's marketplaces were more likely to use expensive specialty drugs and less likely to use contraceptives, according to an analysis of two months of drug claims data by Express Scripts. A Rand analysis, meanwhile, argues that most of the newly insured signed up with an employer rather than buying it through the marketplaces.

10 Apr 2014

Treating advanced cervical cancer: an interview with Dr. Krishnansu Tewari

Cervical cancer affects approximately 500,000 women every year globally of which 250,000 die annually, making it the 2nd leading cause of cancer-related death in women.

9 Apr 2014

Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans continue to grow

Medicare Advantage Special Needs Plans (SNPs) continue to grow according to Mark Farrah Associates', www.markfarrah.com, latest Business Strategy report.

9 Apr 2014

Two new dementia care models seek to improve quality of care for older adults

The number of older adults with dementia in the United States is forecast to more than double over the next 40 years. Caring for these individuals will have a significant impact on caregivers as well as the health care system and its workforce.

9 Apr 2014

First Edition: April 9, 2014

Today's headlines include coverage of the release of Medicare billing and utilization data, as well as early insights into who enrolled in health coverage as a result of the health law.

9 Apr 2014

FDA approves Teva Pharmaceutical's Generic Lovaza Capsules

Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. announces the approval of the generic equivalent to Lovaza® (Omega-3-Acid Ethyl Esters Capsules, USP), in the United States.

9 Apr 2014

New policies needed to address the growing demands of Alzheimer's disease

To address the burgeoning demands of Alzheimer's disease that will affect generations, new policies will have to be adopted to acknowledge the complex and unique needs of people with dementia.

9 Apr 2014

Viewpoints: A 'misguided' debate; trying to figure out who's uninsured; the safety net for the middle class

Supporters of Obamacare are celebrating that the law is not an unmitigated disaster, just a mitigated one. As enrollment closed (for most) on March 31, the system passed 7 million exchange sign-ups.

9 Apr 2014

State highlights: State mental hospitals compared to prisons; Johnson & Johnson ruling; Va. hospitals pick new leader

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel asked the state Supreme Court on Monday to reconsider its decision tossing out a $1.2 billion judgment against drugmaker Johnson & Johnson, saying justices did "significant harm" to the state and broke from 170 years of precedent.

9 Apr 2014