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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.

Tufts Health Plan now covers SBi's STAR total ankle replacement system

Small Bone Innovations, Inc. (SBi) announced today that effective July 1, 2011, Tufts Health Plan, covering approximately 742,000 members in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, is revising its reimbursement policy to cover SBi's STAR™ total ankle replacement system. The decision means that 98 percent of all privately-insured lives in Massachusetts will have access to total ankle replacement.

7 May 2011

Rotech Healthcare first quarter adjusted EBITDA increases 13% to $28.3 million

Rotech Healthcare Inc. today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2011.

7 May 2011

First Edition: May 6, 2011

Today's headlines indicate that the GOP may be rethinking its plans to revamp Medicare -- especially as a new round of debt accord talks begin between Vice President Joe Biden and congressional leaders.

6 May 2011

26 states ask court to uphold Florida federal judge's decision to overturn health overhaul

More than two dozen states challenging the health care overhaul urged a U.S. appeals court on Wednesday to strike down the Obama administration's landmark law, arguing it far exceeds the federal government's powers. The motion, filed on behalf of 26 states, urges the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta to uphold a Florida federal judge's ruling that the overhaul's core requirement is unconstitutional.

6 May 2011

Longer looks: States creating health compacts; IPAB under fire; is GOP redefining rape?

In late April, Colorado and Oklahoma became the latest states to vote on whether to join an interstate agreement with like-minded legislatures to put health care decisions more firmly into the hands of state governments.

6 May 2011

UPMC signs affiliation agreement with Aetna to expand health plan access in Pittsburgh

Aetna and UPMC announced today that they have reached agreement on a contract that expands access to include all of UPMC's hospitals and affiliated physicians in Aetna's Western Pennsylvania network for the first time since 2001.

6 May 2011

Quinnipiac poll finds voters dislike GOP plans to revamp Medicare, Medicaid

The Wall Street Journal's Washington Wire reports that, based on these results, Republicans have some selling to do, and The Washington Post gets back to basics with a primer on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.

6 May 2011

Kaiser Permanente awards $7.7 million as 217 grants during first quarter, 2011

Kaiser Permanente, one of the country's largest not-for-profit health care organizations, announced today that it has funded 217 grants nationwide, totaling approximately $7.7 million in the first quarter of 2011.

6 May 2011

Opponents offer dire warnings about Medicaid block grant proposal

The plan advanced by Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to transform this program has been the subject of much of the concern. However, another alternative, this one offered by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and based on "global cap" for federal spending, is also getting negative reviews from Medicaid advocates.

6 May 2011

House hearing will include effort to revive 'balance billing'

Testimony will come from the nation's largest physician organizations, which will tell a House subcommittee about the need to replace Medicare's current payment system. Meanwhile, on the personnel front, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has a new chief medical officer and Berwick is talking about his "service."

6 May 2011

Viewpoints: Gov. Daniels's reversal?; IPAB's Medicare fix; Texas Medicaid cuts

Centrist Republicans loved it when began urging the party to keep its eye on the deficit-reduction prize and stop obsessing about social issues. ... He then went home and announced that he would sign a bill to strip Planned Parenthood of Medicaid financing. ... Daniels's moderate fans thought abortion was precisely the issue he was calling on Republicans to set aside. Right now, the new Republican majority in the House of Representatives can barely talk about anything else.

6 May 2011

Roundup: Vt. House vote on universal health care could come today; Calif. group warns of rising costs of retiree health care and pensions

The House is slated Thursday to take up a conference committee report on a bill designed to put the state on the path to universal health care by 2017 if not sooner. The bill sets up a new Green Mountain Care Board to design a system to provide health insurance to every Vermont resident.

6 May 2011

A new round of deficit talks begins amidst roadblocks, debt-ceiling concerns

How to handle entitlement spending issues including Medicare will be central to the discourse. Meanwhile, AARP launches a campaign to protect Medicare in the midst of it all.

5 May 2011

First Edition: May 5, 2011

Kaiser Health News staff writer Jessica Marcy recently spoke with Dan Hawkins, the association's senior vice president, about the future and finances of community health centers and their evolving budgets.

5 May 2011

Theragenics reports consolidated revenue of $20.3 million for first quarter 2011

Theragenics Corporation, a medical device company serving the surgical products and prostate cancer treatment markets, today announced consolidated financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2011.

5 May 2011

Congressional Republicans advance legislation to repeal Medicaid maintenance-of-effort provisions

The measure's supporters say it would lead to savings for the federal government of nearly $3 billion over the next five years.

5 May 2011

Rural Doc becomes federally certified to use electronic health records

Kansas Health Institute News: Rural Kansas Doc Becomes Perhaps Nation's First Certified EHR User.

5 May 2011

Roundup: Vt. universal care bill advances; Duluth, Minn., seeking to change retiree health benefits; Texas steps back from plan to close centers for disabled

Dr. James Mongan, a physician with a specialty in politics who for decades helped shape the health care debate in Washington, D.C., and the Commonwealth, and who formerly served as president of Massachusetts General Hospital and Partners HealthCare, died in MGH yesterday.

5 May 2011

Viewpoints: Basic benefits package budget buster?; Colorado CHIP cuts; pharma's public image

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act aims for a delicate balance that even its champions acknowledge as highly challenging: Making medical services affordable for tens of millions of uninsured Americans, and yet restraining the expenditures needed to vastly expand coverage. To grasp why the reform bill risks missing both goals -- and why the measure's margin for error is so perilously narrow -- it's crucial to follow the debate over its central provision, what it calls the "Essential Health Benefits" package.

5 May 2011

Congress returns to face health program costs, budget issues

News outlets report that lawmakers are returning to work after a two-week recess, during which they faced emotional challenges from constituents regarding the deficit and the nation's entitlement programs.

4 May 2011

Medicaid News and Research

Tufts Health Plan now covers SBi's STAR total ankle replacement system

Rotech Healthcare first quarter adjusted EBITDA increases 13% to $28.3 million

First Edition: May 6, 2011

26 states ask court to uphold Florida federal judge's decision to overturn health overhaul

Longer looks: States creating health compacts; IPAB under fire; is GOP redefining rape?

UPMC signs affiliation agreement with Aetna to expand health plan access in Pittsburgh

Quinnipiac poll finds voters dislike GOP plans to revamp Medicare, Medicaid

Kaiser Permanente awards $7.7 million as 217 grants during first quarter, 2011

Opponents offer dire warnings about Medicaid block grant proposal

House hearing will include effort to revive 'balance billing'

Viewpoints: Gov. Daniels's reversal?; IPAB's Medicare fix; Texas Medicaid cuts

Roundup: Vt. House vote on universal health care could come today; Calif. group warns of rising costs of retiree health care and pensions

A new round of deficit talks begins amidst roadblocks, debt-ceiling concerns

First Edition: May 5, 2011

Theragenics reports consolidated revenue of $20.3 million for first quarter 2011

Congressional Republicans advance legislation to repeal Medicaid maintenance-of-effort provisions

Rural Doc becomes federally certified to use electronic health records

Roundup: Vt. universal care bill advances; Duluth, Minn., seeking to change retiree health benefits; Texas steps back from plan to close centers for disabled

Viewpoints: Basic benefits package budget buster?; Colorado CHIP cuts; pharma's public image

Congress returns to face health program costs, budget issues

Evaluating new approaches for rare disease genomics

Expanding access to NMR with the Fourier 80 Duo

Advancing Intracellular Delivery with LumiPore®

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