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Connecticut Judge orders HMOs to publicly release information on reimbursements for Medicaid beneficiaries' care

Three HMOs that administer managed care plans for Connecticut's Medicaid program must make public the rates they pay providers and other information, state Superior Court Judge George Levine ruled on Wednesday, the Hartford Courant reports.

2 Dec 2006

Fewer Colorado residents enroll in HMOs, hospital profits increase

Fewer Colorado residents enrolled in HMO plans in 2005, but Denver-area hospitals "enjoyed their strongest profits in recent memory," according to findings released Friday from the Colorado Managed Care Review 2006, the Denver Post reports.

13 Nov 2006

Utah receives poor marks for adolescent vaccination, women's cancer screenings

Fewer adolescents in Utah get vaccinated than their counterparts in other states, and Utah women receive fewer screenings for breast, colorectal and cervical cancer compared with women nationwide, according to findings released Thursday at the State of Our Health program forum, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

30 Oct 2006

Virtual colonoscopy is an accurate screening method for colorectal cancer

"Our positive experience with virtual colonoscopy screening covered by health insurance demonstrates its enormous potential for increasing compliance for colorectal cancer prevention and screening"

17 Oct 2006

New York State to receive $1.5B to improve Medicaid

HHS has agreed to pay New York $1.5 billion over five years to help stabilize the state's hospital industry in exchange for renewed efforts to shrink the industry, curb Medicaid costs and reduce Medicaid fraud, the New York Times reports.

3 Oct 2006

Patient satisfaction not best indication of quality of care

The argument that the "best way to improve the quality and restrain the cost of health care is to make the market for health care more like the market for everything else" is based on the erroneous "belief that health care is -- in most respects -- like any other product," columnist David Wessel writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

7 Sep 2006

Georgia Medicaid, PeachCare beneficiaries enroll HMOs despite concerns over partial rollout

Georgia's Medicaid and PeachCare programs has enrolled hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries in HMOs "despite complaints that the program has become an administrative and medical nightmare in areas where it has been tried so far," the Florida Times-Union reports.

4 Sep 2006

Georgia physicians file lawsuit alleging that HMOs have not paid Medicaid claims

Three private HMOs contracting with Georgia to oversee care for Medicaid beneficiaries have not paid providers for millions of dollars in outstanding claims, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Fulton County, Ga., Superior Court, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

17 Aug 2006

As heart procedures increase, more important to the U.S. healthcare system to monitor the success of new treatments and technology

With more than a million heart and vascular interventions performed each year in the United States., it becomes even more critical to the healthcare system to keep costs down and quality high.

9 Aug 2006

Hospitals and physicians organize and market services targeted at specific diseases, organ systems and populations, raising cost and quality concerns

The proliferation of heart institutes, cancer centers, orthopedic hospitals and other niche specialty centers signals an escalation in a new medical arms race as hospitals and physicians develop and market profitable specialty-service lines.

26 Jul 2006

Breast cancer survivors turning their backs on recommended mammograms

A new study finds use of annual mammography among breast cancer survivors, who are at increased risk of a recurrence or a new malignancy in the other breast, dropped off after a few years. During the five year study period, only one in three women in this high-risk population had received regular annual mammograms.

24 Apr 2006

Steep decline in competition in the nation's health insurance markets

In addition, the study found that in 95 percent of markets, a single insurer had a market share of 30 percent or greater, and in 56 percent of the markets, a single insurer had a market share of 50 percent or greater.

19 Apr 2006

Disclosure of physicians' financial incentives may increase patient trust

Providing notices that explain how physicians are paid appears to increase patients' knowledge about compensation models, does not harm trust and may increase the loyalty patients feel toward their physicians, according to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

11 Apr 2006

Real cure for beating insomnia is to find out what is causing it in the first place

Studies show that many Americans are struggling to get a good night's sleep, but seeing a doctor for an instant insomnia "cure," however, shouldn't be the first course of action, says a Purdue University expert.

27 Mar 2006

Doctors fail to recommend colon cancer tests for low-income patients

Fewer than nine out of 10 low-income, medically underserved minority patients at risk for colorectal cancer receive a recommendation for colorectal cancer screening by physicians at government-supported community health centers

24 Feb 2006

Mass behavioral health plan is a good value

A statewide organization representing over 100 community-based mental health and substance abuse service providers, found that the MassHealth behavioral health carve-out provides efficient and effective mental health and substance abuse services and is of good taxpayer value to the Commonwealth.

13 Feb 2006

Chronic disease is becoming a major focus in health care

More funding, increased workforce resources and further reform of the health system are needed if the national chronic disease strategy is going to deliver better care to patients suffering from diseases such as diabetes, asthma and cancer, according to an international primary health expert.

7 Feb 2006

The Medicare Drug Benefit: A Prescription for Confusion

If many seniors are scratching their heads about the new Medicare prescription drug plan, so are the experts.

20 Nov 2005

Colorectal cancer screening rates remain low

Investigators failed to see improvement in colorectal cancer (CRC) screening rates among patients enrolled in a managed care health plan after testing the effectiveness of a CRC screening promotion program targeting the physician organizations (POs).

10 Oct 2005

Colorectal cancer screening rates are too low

An intervention program designed to promote screening for colorectal cancer – and thereby decrease the number of cancers diagnosed - failed to increase screening rates in the managed care setting, a University of California - Los Angeles study has found.

10 Oct 2005