Medicare is the federal health-insurance program for people 65 or older and certain people with disabilities. Beneficiaries love the program and depend on it, and so do a large and unknown number of criminals and scam artists. Earlier this month, federal prosecutors announced the settlement of a Medicare fraud case involving a Pennsylvania hospice firm with a location in … [Read more...]
Medicaid Media
House GOP budget partially privatizes Medicare, slashes Medicaid
WASHINGTON – Now that Senate Republicans have failed in their attempt to repeal and replace Obamacare and cut Medicaid, House Republicans are pushing a budget that aims to do all that and then some. Their budget proposal partially privatizes Medicare and deeply cuts social programs such as food stamps. While it is a nonbinding guide for future congressional action, the … [Read more...]
Senate Health Care Bill Could Be Greatest Entitlement Reform in a Generation
The Senate health care bill (the Better Care Reconciliation Act of 2017) would fundamentally reform federal Medicaid payment. As Washington Post columnist George Will has written, the bill’s Medicaid provisions, as crafted by Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Penn., “makes it this century’s most significant domestic policy reform.” Will is correct. Medicaid financing needs reform. … [Read more...]
Mass. adds new Delta Dental plan despite concern
July 19, 2017 -- The Massachusetts Division of Insurance (DOI) has approved a new low-cost preferred provider organization (PPO) plan from Delta Dental of Massachusetts, despite concerns from the state's dental society. In response, the Massachusetts Dental Society has petitioned for a hearing on the plan, and the DOI is assembling a three-person review board. Delta … [Read more...]
Stepdaughter of Texas doctor accused in seven overdose deaths found dead in creek
The body of a teenage girl found in a Texas park is the stepdaughter of a doctor recently charged in at least seven overdose deaths, police said. The medical examiner identified a body found floating in a creek at Blair Park on Sunday as 17-year-old Mikayla Mitchell, Dallas Police told WFAA. Her stepfather, Howard Diamond, was arrested earlier this month on charges … [Read more...]
Austin dentist in toddler death sues Nancy Grace, other media outlets
An Austin dentist whose 14-month-old patient died after being put under anesthesia in 2016 is suing multiple national media outlets and broadcast personalities, including Nancy Grace, over their reports of the case. In the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Travis County state district court, Dr. Michael Melanson says the media outlets committed libel and slander by broadcasting and … [Read more...]
MCNA Dental awarded Arkansas Medicaid contract
July 17, 2017 -- MCNA Dental has signed a contract with the Arkansas Department of Human Services to serve as a dental benefits manager for the state's Medicaid program and the Children's Health Insurance Program. The contract takes effect in January 2018. MCNA will be one of two managed dental care organizations serving 900,000 children and adults in … [Read more...]
At It Again: Texas Continues To Undercut Access To Reproductive Health Care
Texas policymakers are once again demonstrating their contempt for reproductive health care, the health care providers who offer those services, and the women who rely on them. The state has spent years crippling a once-successful program supporting family planning and related services for low-income residents — all in service of an ideological agenda to shut out and shut down … [Read more...]
Largest Medicaid Facility in TX Closing
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) -- The largest assisted-living facility for Medicaid recipients in Texas is voluntarily shuttering after years of budget deficits and as residential developers clamor for real estate in the nation's seventh fastest-growing city, the owner confirmed Friday. The Westchester Plaza, a 12-story property at the center of Fort Worth's medical district, has … [Read more...]
National Health Care Fraud Takedown
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Tom Price, M.D., announced today the largest ever health care fraud enforcement action by the Medicare Fraud Strike Force, involving 412 charged defendants across 41 federal districts, including 115 doctors, nurses and other licensed medical professionals, for their alleged participation … [Read more...]
