Medicare News and Research

RSS

DaVita HealthCare announces results for third quarter 2013

DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. (NYSE: DVA) today announced results for the quarter ended September 30, 2013. Adjusted income from continuing operations attributable to DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2013 was $211.0 million and $605.3 million, or $0.98 and $2.82 per share, respectively, excluding a loss contingency reserve. In addition, adjusted income from continuing operations attributable to DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. for the nine months ended September 30, 2013 excluded a contingent earn-out obligation adjustment. Income from continuing operations attributable to DaVita HealthCare Partners Inc. for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2013 including these items was $136.6 million and $407.9 million, or $0.64 per share and $1.90 per share, respectively.

6 Nov 2013

Johnson & Johnson to pay $2.2 billion fine to resolve drug marketing case

The government alleged that the drug company and its subsidiaries promoted psychiatric medications for uses that had not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

6 Nov 2013

State highlights: Calif. hospital chain settles anesthesia billing suit; study shows graduate medical education funding imbalance

A major California hospital chain, Sutter Health, agreed to pay $46 million and disclose more pricing information to consumers to resolve a whistle-blower complaint alleging false and misleading charges for anesthesia. Sutter Health, which runs 24 acute-care hospitals in Northern California, said it reached the settlement Monday just prior to a trial starting this month over the allegations that it added thousands of dollars for "Code 37x" anesthesia charges that were already covered by other billing for the hospital operating room (Terhune, 11/4).

6 Nov 2013

Tavenner to testify before Senate panel today on website problems

In prepared testimony, she says improvements are being made each day to the site and she still thinks it will be working by the end of the month.

6 Nov 2013

Who's signing up on exchanges, and what's available, trigger important questions

News outlets report on health law implementation issues, such as an early indication that customers on the marketplace tend to be older and how that could impact insurance prices for everyone.

6 Nov 2013

Financial interests ‘driving IMRT uptake for prostate cancer’

A study suggests that the recent rapid uptake of intensity-modulated radiotherapy for prostate cancer in the USA has been driven by urologists with financial conflicts of interest.

5 Nov 2013

Gentiva Health Services third quarter 2013 net revenues decrease 3.3% to $410.5 million

Gentiva Health Services, Inc., the largest provider of home health and hospice services in the United States based on revenue, today reported third quarter 2013 results.

5 Nov 2013

First Edition: November 5, 2013

Today's headlines include continuing coverage of the implementation issues that are plaguing the health law, as well as President Barack Obama's pledge to campaign for the overhaul's success.

5 Nov 2013

Officials give drug companies the OK to help patients with costly drug co-pays in insurance exchanges

Federal officials last week OK'd allowing pharmaceutical companies to help cover patient out-of-pocket costs for costly drugs in the health law's insurance exchanges, a closely watched move by drug companies and patient advocates.

5 Nov 2013

Viewpoints: Website is like 'a patient bleeding from self-inflicted wounds;' remembering patients who never had care and the need for health law

Obamacare is starting to resemble a patient bleeding from self-inflicted wounds. A month after launch, the online health exchanges where individuals are supposed to shop for insurance remain slow or unusable, except in states that opted to run their own marketplaces and did a more competent job than the administration. As if that weren't trouble enough, critics are justifiably mocking President Obama for his repeated, untrue promise that if people liked their health plans, they could keep them. Oops. Hundreds of thousands of people are getting termination notices for plans that don't meet the strict new requirements of the Affordable Care Act. Presumably, not all those people disliked their plans (11/3).

5 Nov 2013

Tracking health law policy, politics on Capitol Hill

A Democratic House member grapples with the troubles in the health law rollout. CBO releases numbers on adding Capitol Hill staffers to the exchanges and a House committee ponders subpoenas to get exchange enrollment numbers. Also, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., readies a bill that would ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.

4 Nov 2013

First Edition: November 4, 2013

Today's headlines include the latest on the efforts to address the problems with healthcare.gov, as well as the continuing controversy surrounding President Barack Obama's promise that Americans could keep their health coverage if they liked it juxtaposed with the news of recent policy cancellations.

4 Nov 2013

Most uninsured signing up on health website are going to Medicaid

The Washington Post reports that nine out of 10 new enrollees are in Medicaid. Meanwhile, White House documents turned over to investigators in the House show only six people enrolled on the day the troubled website launched.

4 Nov 2013

Details emerge about key fixers in 'tech surge' to address website issues

News outlets report that the administration's so-called "tech surge" has been somewhat mysterious, but it's becoming clear that the administration has enlisted engineers from a number of major companies.

4 Nov 2013

COMS OPAL Award program recognizes top performers on a national basis

COMS Interactive, also known as Clinical Outcomes Management Systems, has launched the Outcomes Performance Achievement Leader (OPAL) Award program. The program is an extension of the company's focus on improving health care and clinical outcomes in the long-term care marketplace by leveraging Daylight IQ™, the COMS' flagship Disease Management Product Suite.

31 Oct 2013

Cigna posts strong revenue growth in third quarter 2013

Cigna Corporation today reported strong third quarter 2013 results with each of the Company's business segments posting strong revenue and earnings contributions.

31 Oct 2013

First Edition: October 31, 2013

Today's headlines include reports about the Obama administration's efforts to recover from health law implementation hiccups and challenges.

31 Oct 2013

MEDNAX reports revenue growth of 17.3% to $555M

MEDNAX, Inc., the national medical group specializing in neonatal, maternal-fetal, pediatric cardiology, other pediatric subspecialties and anesthesia physician services, today reported earnings of $1.52 per share for the three months ended September 30, 2013 resulting from strong revenue growth, primarily from recent acquisitions.

31 Oct 2013

Viewpoints: House Republicans help themselves, and the country, with smart, tough questions to Tavenner; Kentucky senators out of step with eager constituents; replace health law with single payer system

When House Republicans direct their opposition to Obamacare toward aggressive oversight rather than apocalyptic budget shenanigans, they can do themselves and the country a lot of good. That was obvious when the House Ways and Means Committee posed some smart, tough questions about HealthCare.gov to Marilyn Tavenner, who, as the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, is perhaps the person most directly responsible for the fiasco. Yes, there were a few "gotcha" questions meant to showcase individual representatives' hatred of the health-care law. But for the most part, the queries seemed designed to find a path toward more competent management of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (10/29).

31 Oct 2013

Policy cancellation letters lead to questions, put White House on the defensive

Even as the Obama administration struggles to recover from the troubled launch of healthcare.gov, a new issue has cropped up that is calling into question one of President Barack Obama's often-repeated health law promises -- that if a person has health insurance they like, they'll be able to keep it.

31 Oct 2013