Audit: Indiana owes feds $39M for Medicaid
A federal audit recommends that Indiana's human services agency refund the federal government nearly $39 million it overpaid to Medicaid providers during a nine-year period.
Medicare
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Drugmakers’ ‘doughnut hole’ deal to shave sales
Drugmakers including Pfizer Inc., AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Eli Lilly and Co. may provide more than $2 billion in drug discounts to senior citizens next year under a deal pharmaceutical companies made with the White House.
WellPoint gets $87M Medicare contract renewal
The company said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services renewed its durable medical equipment administrative contract for a region that covers Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
iSalus sees business boom as docs chase stimulus cash
The company is seeing a rush of new sales for its Web-based electronic medical record system from doctors, who all stand to
receive bonus payments from the federal stimulus act for computerizing their patient records.
WellPoint, other health insurers race to join accountable care groups
The health care industry is responding to reforms that will pay doctors bonuses if they provide high-quality care and save
Medicare money.
Medicare driving health care hookups
The scramble by local hospitals to form their physicians and facilities into “clinically integrated” networks
that can do business with employers and health insurers has another huge motivating factor: Beginning January 2012, they can
also do business with Medicare, the massive federal program for seniors.
Indiana Medicaid chief: Feds leave states in dark
Indiana and other states face a struggle as they grapple with putting the health care changes into place in a relatively short
span of time while they also contend with the economic downtown and strained state budgets.
Health care reform bringing changes to Caregivers
Caregivers anticipates coping with declining Medicare reimbursements while having to offer insurance to its employees.
Doctors breathe a sigh of relief
As doctors threaten to drop Medicare patients, Congress delays cuts for another six months.
Medicare cuts hit doctors as Congress feuds
Physician offices will begin receiving payments from the Medicare that are 21.3-percent below
what they’ve been getting so far this year. Doctors still expect Congress to reverse the payment cuts, but physicians
and the Medicare program will have to reprocess claims, costing both extra money.
Indy firm launches bedsore weapon
The latest idea from Dr. James Spahn, an Indianapolis health care entrepreneur, should help hospitals and nursing homes do
a better job of preventing severe bedsores, or pressure ulcers. That’s good, because Medicare and private health insurers
increasingly won’t pay to treat them.
Q&A: Don Stumpp
Don Stumpp, manager of payer contracting at Indianapolis-based physician group American Health Network and president of the Indiana Medical Group Management Association, discussed the impact of the health care reform law on primary care physicians as well as the near-constant threat of a sharp cut in Medicare reimbursement.
Two Indiana hospitals repay feds over $1M each
Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie and Bloomington Hospital were among nine U.S. hospitals that had been charged with submitting
false claims to the Medicare program.
ER doc is affable WellPoint activist
Dr. Rob Stone wants the giant health insurer to convert to not-for-profit status and put him, an advocate of national health
insurance, on the company’s board.
Study: Quality, costs better at big practices
As physician mergers increase in Indianapolis, a new study has determined that quality at large, multispecialty practices is at
least 5 percent higher and costs are 3.6 percent lower than at small group practices.
Medicare Advantage may survive cuts under health reform
The two largest U.S. health insurance companies, UnitedHealth, based in Minnetonka, Minn., and WellPoint Inc., based in Indianapolis,
sell Advantage plans.
Indiana freezes some medical savings account rolls
The new federal health care bill will put 500,000 more Indiana residents on Medicaid and lead to higher state taxes, Gov.
Mitch Daniels said Monday, but a government insurance proponent said it will help families and businesses.
Bill kicks off years of change for local health care players
Sweeping changes phase in slowly for most, but insurers, hospitals, drug companies, employers, workers, medical device makers
and more will eventually feel impact.
Reform offers risk, opportunities for Lilly, WellPoint
Drugmakers and insurers could gain millions of customers under the legislation, but the industry also will pay new fees and
face stricter rules that may shrink profit and fuel mergers.
Congress passes historic health care bill
To pay for the changes, the legislation includes more than $400 billion in higher taxes over a decade, roughly half of it
from a new Medicare payroll tax on individuals with incomes over $200,000 and couples over $250,000.