News
Poor communication is costing the major healthcare organizations about $12 million annually nationwide, according to Spok.
The state's only health insurance co-op will shut down operations on December 31, after failing to find additional financing, Meritus officials announced November 25.
Computer Programs and Systems, which provides healthcare information solutions to rural and community hospitals, will buy technology vendor firm Healthland Holding and its affiliates for $250 million, the company announced.
While the average premium for the least expensive closed network silver plan--principally HMOs--rose from $274 to $299, a 9 percent increase, the average premium for the least expensive PPO or other silver-level open access plan grew from $291 to $339, an 17 percent jump.
Many co-op plans were priced low, and customers poured in. But these new customers had high health costs, so the co-ops had to start paying a lot of bills. The math didn't add up
The former CFO of a Long Beach hospital in California, two orthopedic surgeons and two others have been charged in relation to a $600 million fraudulent billings scheme involving illegal referrals of thousands of patients for spinal surgeries.
Halfway through the open enrollment period, another half million consumers signed up in the federal marketplace during the week of November 15-21, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
CMS is requesting comment on whether health plans should designate network strength, such as indicating whether a plan has a broad number of doctors or health facilities in the network or not.
While CMS said it was "pleased to report that claims are processing normally," it's worth keeping in mind that the government agency has taken several temporary steps to smooth the transition to ICD-10 which may be masking problems that could manifest themselves down the road.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development's Distance Learning and Telemedicine Program will add $23.4 million in additional funding for 75 new projects in 31 states, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.