Archive for the ‘Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP’ Category
Sunday, July 20th, 2008
Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine on Tuesday announced the formation of a 10-member panel to help the department revamp its health care delivery system for low-income and uninsured residents, the Baton Rouge Advocate reports. Speaking at a Louisiana State University Health Care Services Division conference, Levine ...
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Sunday, July 20th, 2008
The Center for Medicare Advocacy applauds the courageous members of Congress who passed H.R. 6331, the "Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008." "This legislation preserves the most important choice for Medicare beneficiaries - the choice of doctor," said Judith Stein, executive director of the Center for Medicare ...
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Sunday, July 20th, 2008
U.S. Representative Charles W. Boustany, Jr., MD, R-Southwest Louisiana, introduced the Improving Children's Doctor Access Act of 2008, H.R. 6506, to encourage states to measure and report access problems for low-income children in S-CHIP and to ensure that these children remain a top priority in states' enrollment efforts. "I am ...
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Sunday, July 20th, 2008
A 10.6% reduction to Medicare physician fees will be delayed for 18 months because legislation (HR 6331) became law on Tuesday after both chambers of Congress voted to override President Bush's veto of the bill earlier in the day, the Wall Street Journal reports (Wilde Mathews, Wall Street Journal, 7/16). ...
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Sunday, July 20th, 2008
Louisiana's $29.9 billion fiscal year 2009 budget, which Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) signed into law on Monday, could result in cuts to state health programs for low-income, elderly and uninsured state residents, state Department of Health and Hospitals Secretary Alan Levine said on Monday, the Baton Rouge Advocate reports. The ...
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Friday, July 18th, 2008
Congress has been successful in overriding President Bush's veto of the Medicare legislation, including funding for diabetes research, that was passed by the House last month and by the Senate last week.The legislation includes a two year extension of the Special Diabetes Program (SDP), providing $300 million for type 1 ...
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Friday, July 18th, 2008
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) announced payment of more than $36 million in bonus payments to many of the more than 56,700 health professionals who satisfactorily reported quality information to Medicare under the 2007 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). "Creating a value-based purchasing system is a critical ...
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Friday, July 18th, 2008
House Democratic leaders in a July 11 letter requested that the Government Accountability Office conduct a review of the Medicare recovery audit contractor program that led to the recovery of $694 million in Medicare overpayments to hospitals and other health care providers between 2007 and March, CQ HealthBeat reports (Reichard, ...
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Friday, July 18th, 2008
Medicare spending on medical imaging increased to $14 billion from 2000 to 2007, and CMS should require prior authorization for imaging services to discourage physicians from ordering the tests for personal profit rather than patient benefit, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Monday, CQ HealthBeat reports (Reichard, CQ ...
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Friday, July 18th, 2008
Statement attributable to Nancy H. Nielsen, M.D., President, American Medical Association. "It has been a long and winding road, but today we celebrate that Congress heard the voices of millions of patients and physicians and voted to override President Bush's veto and protect the health of America. We thank the ...
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Thursday, July 17th, 2008
"We congratulate Congress for its strong, bipartisan vote today to override President Bush's veto of H.R. 6331," Jeffrey P. Harris, MD, FACP, president of the American College of Physicians (ACP), enthusiastically said. "Clearly, overwhelming numbers of members of the House and ...
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Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Following today's White House veto of important Medicare legislation, AARP announced that it will designate the expected veto override votes in the House and the Senate as "Key Votes." This designation means that AARP will record the House and Senate roll call votes and inform ...
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Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Statement by Tyler Wilson, President and CEO American Association for Homecare, July 15, 2008.It is unfortunate that President Bush has chosen to veto H.R. 6331, "The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008." This legislation would save taxpayers billions of dollars through reduced spending on home medical equipment ...
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Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Mary Agnes Carey, associate editor of CQ HealthBeat, discusses Senate passage of a bill that would halt a Medicare physician payment cut, a Senate-House agreement on mental health parity legislation and House action on changes to veterans' health care services in this week's "Health on the Hill from kaisernetwork.org and ...
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Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
Legislation (HR 6331) that would delay a 10.6% reduction to Medicare physician fees, scheduled to take effect on July 1, could lead to a reduction to physician fees of more than 20% in 2010 unless a long-term solution is found, the New York Times reports. Although the recently passed bill ...
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