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HHS' new rules on electronic payments could benefit doctors, hospitals

NPR reports on how efforts to set uniform standards for electronic claims for health care services could pay off.

7 Jan 2012

RetireSafe calls upon Express Scripts PBM to come to an agreement with Walgreens

RetireSafe, a 400,000-supporter strong grassroots organization that advocates and educates on behalf of America's seniors on issues regarding Social Security, Medicare, health and financial well-being, today urged Express Scripts, Inc. (ESI) to return to the negotiating table, and come to an agreement with Walgreens.

7 Jan 2012

Proposal to tie likelihood of sleep apnea to body mass index

The first lawsuit against a trucking company acknowledging that sleep apnea played a role in a highway death reached a settlement last week. A Texas family was awarded over $3 million dollars after a driver rear-ended John Lindsay's vehicle on a Texas interstate in May of 2010. Evidence showed that the driver had refused to treat his previously diagnosed sleep apnea and the company did not ensure follow up care was provided.

7 Jan 2012

ASAP Quotes launches life insurance leads for agents

ASAP Quotes was founded with more than 20 years experience as agents, brokers, medical billing, and insurance specialists with one goal in mind: to help generate a premier source of health insurance leads for other agents within the industry.

7 Jan 2012

Justice Department, lawmakers file SCOTUS health suit briefs

The Obama administration on Friday told the Supreme Court that the requirement to buy insurance in its health reform law is well within Congress's constitutional boundaries - and insisted that legally, the law doesn't break any new ground. The 130-page brief is the first the Justice Department has filed since the court agreed to review the law.

7 Jan 2012

Mass. high court says state can't bar legal immigrants from health program

The Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the commonwealth cannot bar legal immigrants from joining a state health insurance program for residents with lower income. The price tag for covering the 37,400 immigrants who stand to gain coverage is $150 million.

7 Jan 2012

Justice Dept. to file brief regarding Supreme Court health law challenge

The early round of briefs will focus on the core questions related to the individual mandate. Meanwhile, Bloomberg reports that many insurers have profited from the health law -- despite their opposition to it.

7 Jan 2012

ACLJ urges U.S. Supreme Court to declare flawed health care law unconstitutional

On behalf of nearly 120 members of Congress and more than 100,000 Americans, the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) today urged the U.S. Supreme Court to conclude that a key provision of ObamaCare - the individual mandate - cannot be severed from the health care law and urged the high court to declare the entire law unconstitutional.

7 Jan 2012

Insurance status does not affect quantity of imaging services received by hospital in-patients

Insurance status doesn't affect the quantity (or value) of imaging services received by patients in a hospital, in-patient setting, according to a study in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology.

7 Jan 2012

Viewpoints: Sebelius on curbing the increase in health insurance costs; Forcing the mentally ill into treatment

The rising cost of health insurance coverage has imposed a heavy burden on our nation. Over the past decade, insurance premiums for working families have grown three times faster than have wages. Small businesses have seen health care become one of their biggest operating expenses. And rising state and federal spending on health programs has crowded out critical investments in better schools, new roads and other areas.

7 Jan 2012

Roundup: Miami police unions thwart health premiums increase; Washington's mandatory-abortion-coverage bill

Despite blunt warnings from Mayor Carlos Gimenez that their decision would force layoffs of hundreds of police and corrections officers, Miami-Dade commissioners Thursday narrowly refused to force two employee unions to contribute an additional 5 percent of their pay toward health insurance. ... The panel also refused to impose the controversial 5-percent giveback on its professionals and supervisor.

6 Jan 2012

First Edition: January 6, 2012

In today's news, reports from the campaign trail and details about how nine states have asked the federal government for more funding to make sure their high-risk pools don't run out of cash before 2014.

6 Jan 2012

HHS denies MLR waiver requests from two more states

The Department of Health and Human Services denied requests from Kansas and Oklahoma to allow them to adjust the health law's medical-loss ratio provisions. That brings to eight the number of states who will not receive such exemptions.

6 Jan 2012

NFIB seeks to add two plaintiffs to the health law SCOTUS case

The National Federation of Independent Business asked the Supreme Court to add two additional plaintiffs to its health law challenge after the initial plaintiff in the case filed for bankruptcy.

6 Jan 2012

Major health insurers prosper with expanding roles in Medicare, Medicaid

Meanwhile, a California study shows health care costs in that state are rising, while benefits are shrinking. Another study finds that coverage gaps can be disruptive to preventive care.

6 Jan 2012

MedLion announces expansion into Fresno region

Nearly one in four Fresno residents is without any kind of health care coverage. MedLion, Inc., a pioneering Direct Primary Care practice, today announced the company's expansion into the Fresno region by including William Work, M.D., in its fast-growing network of affiliated physicians.

6 Jan 2012

State roundup: Colo. reports 'record' number of Medicaid recipients; Hollywood nursing home stymied by Congress?

Nearly 615,000 Coloradans were on Medicaid in November, by far a record high, officials said Wednesday, attributing the vast bulk of the growth to economic hard times rather than recent eligibility expansions. ... the 614,146 Coloradans enrolled in Medicaid in November represented a 57.7 percent increase over January 2007. ... roughly 13 percent of all Coloradans are covered by state health-insurance programs.

6 Jan 2012

Cost paid for statins 400% higher in the U.S. than U.K.

In the United States, the cost paid for statins (drugs to lower cholesterol) in people under the age of 65 who have private insurance is approximately 400 percent higher than comparable costs paid by the government in the United Kingdom.

6 Jan 2012

First Edition: January 5, 2012

Today's headlines include a report that health law opponents want to add plaintiffs to their lawsuit as well as dispatches from the GOP primary election compaign trail.

5 Jan 2012

Diabetic patients with less coverage less likely to receive screening tests, vaccines

When patients with diabetes experience interruptions in health - insurance coverage, they are less likely to receive the screening tests and vaccines they need to protect their health. A new study finds that this is true even when patients receive free or reduced-cost medical care at federally funded safety net clinics.

5 Jan 2012