AllHealthcare

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama on Monday welcomed the pharmaceutical industry's agreement to help close a gap in Medicare's drug coverage, calling the pact a step forward in the push for overhaul of the health care system. Obama said that drug companies have pledged to spend $80 billion over the next decade to help reduce the cost of drugs for seniors ...

TULSA — An hour into knee replacement surgery — with U2's I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For playing in the background — Yogesh Mittal smiles as he raises the left leg of his patient, 76-year-old Frank Morrow. While holding Morrow's thigh, the surgeon lets the bottom half of the leg fall. "Look at that," he says, pointing to the ...

WASHINGTON - Federal authorities indicted 53 people on Wednesday for schemes to cheat Medicare out of $50 million. Suspects were arrested in Detroit, Miami, and Denver as part of a wide-ranging effort by the government to crack down on those allegedly defrauding the government-funded health care program for the elderly and disabled. Attorney General Eric Holder, Health and Human Services Secretary ...

Three Orlando health-care workers pampered themselves with lavish trips and a baby shower using $200,000 from Medicaid, the Office of the Attorney General of Florida said. Investigators said Tammy Lee Scarborough, owner of Building a Community Connection (BCC), and employee Sharon D. Smith submitted fraudulent reimbursement claims to Medicaid for services they never provided to disabled clients. Kathy Marinelli, a coordinator ...

Proposed cuts to Medicaid funding at Florida hospitals would result in thousands of health-care job losses throughout the state, according to a new study. A University of Florida study released Thursday by the Florida Hospital Association found that each $1 in Medicaid spending cuts would result in about $4 of losses to the state's economy. A $100 million reduction in Medicaid ...

WASHINGTON - The nation's hospitals will give up $155 billion in future Medicare and Medicaid payments to help defray the cost of President Barack Obama's health care plan, a concession the White House hopes will boost an overhaul effort that's hit a roadblock in Congress. Vice President Joe Biden announced the deal at the White House on Wednesday, with administration officials ...

Because of its size and cost, Medicaid has been called the "workhorse" of the U.S. health system. Now it's front and center in the debate on overhauling the U.S health system and expanding coverage to the uninsured. With 60 million enrollees, Medicaid dwarfs other insurance programs, including its cousin, Medicare, which covers 44 million elderly and disabled people. Do you ...

WASHINGTON - House Democrats on Tuesday rolled out a far-reaching $1.5 trillion plan that for the first time would make health care a right and a responsibility for all Americans, with medical providers, employers and the wealthiest picking up most of the tab. The federal government would be responsible for ensuring that every person, regardless of income or the state of ...

DALLAS - When Robert Barnhouse of Richardson, Texas, lost his job in October, he tried to hold onto his health insurance but quickly found he couldn't afford the $500 monthly premiums. The 61-year-old engineer dropped the coverage after one month and is now taking his chances. "I'm paying more attention to my diet and exercising more, because I can't get sick," ...

WASHINGTON – Medicare has quietly expanded its coverage for cancer drugs to include some treatments that haven't gotten the Food and Drug Administration's full seal of approval. The change was announced last summer with little fanfare and took effect in the fall. It means that doctors and patients seeking Medicare reimbursement for certain novel treatments won't have to negotiate with the ...

WASHINGTON -- One of the largest spending cuts Congress could rely on to pay for an overhaul of the nation's health care system comes from a Medicare program President Obama has called a "wasteful" subsidy for the health insurance industry. Don't tell that to cancer survivor Maurice Engleman, 82, who says the controversial Medicare Advantage program -- which allows seniors to ...

MOUNT LAUREL, N.J. - A dozen New Jersey hospitals are paying doctors as an incentive to save the hospitals money. The principle is known as gainsharing, and it's generally prohibited under federal law. But the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services are allowing tests of the practice, which doctors' groups and hospitals alike say could help their finances and improve patient ...

WASHINGTON – That day in July was one that Tammy Morse won't soon forget. Five months earlier, her husband lost his job as a recruiter for the financial services industry. Once the family savings were gone, the mother of two from Stratford, Conn., saw no way to get health insurance coverage for her family other than to apply for Medicaid. "It ...

WASHINGTON – Master toolmaker John McClain built machine parts with details so small they couldn't be seen with the naked eye. Then a lump on his neck turned out to be cancer. Shalonda Frederick managed a bakery, and decorated cakes for special occasions. One day her face and hands, and her arms and legs, started clenching up. Then she fell off ...

PAWTUCKET, R.I. - Joanne Devlin needs about 20 prescription drugs to regulate her blood pressure, keep her arthritic joints limber and pain-free and control her asthma. She counts on financial help from Rhode Island when her Medicare Part D insurance plan maxes out and no longer pays her drug bills, which can reach $3,000 every three months. But that state help ...

The federal government could save $540 billion in health care costs over the next 10 years if existing, proven programs and techniques that have improved health care quality and slowed the growth of medical spending are applied more broadly, according to a report from UnitedHealth Group's new Center for Health Reform and Modernization. The issue of cost containment is at center ...

Chelsea Savage, chairperson of the Legislative Coalition of Virginia Nurses, wasn't looking forward to this year's General Assembly session. "I was very somber," she said. "We were looking at all the cuts for Medicaid and worried that people would not be able to get the care they needed." By the time the legislative session ended, her mood had changed. "We were ...

States from Rhode Island to California are being forced to curtail Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, as they struggle to cope with the deteriorating economy. With revenues falling at the same time that more people are losing their jobs and private health coverage, states already have pared their programs, and many are looking at deeper cuts for ...

NEW YORK — One in five Medicare patients end up back in the hospital within a month of discharge, a large study found, and that practice costs billions of dollars a year. The findings suggest patients aren't told enough about how to take care of themselves and stay healthy before they go home, the researchers said. A few simple things - ...

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Four hospitals in New York state paid kickbacks to get more patients into their drug treatment programs, which billed Medicaid for services that weren't standard or necessary and lacked state certification, lawsuits allege. Another hospital paid people to search homeless shelters and other places for patients to enter a three-day stay in detox in exchange for cigarettes, ...