John Dempsey Hospital will pay more than $475,000 in fines and reimbursements to settle allegations that it overbilled Medicare for chemotherapy treatment administered to patients between 2001 and 2006, federal officials said Tuesday.
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ROCKVILLE, Md., June 26, 2007 — Cytomedix, Inc. today announced that the Centers for Medicare and medicaid services has agreed to Cytomedix’s request to reconsider a non-coverage decision for autologous blood-derived products when used for the treatment of chronic non-healing wounds.
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House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chair Pete Stark (D-Calif.) at a hearing on Thursday said that he might push for measures this summer that would increase oversight of Medicare prescription drug plans, CQ HealthBeat reports. [click link for full article]
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TAMPA, Fla.—-Sage Software today announced its support for the Centers for Medicare & medicaid’s Physician Quality Reporting Initiative , a pay-for-performance initiative that is scheduled for implementation in July, 2007.
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Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag on Thursday at a hearing of the Senate Budget Committee said that federal spending on Medicare and medicaid would increase from about 4.5% to about 20% of U.S. gross domestic product by 2050, CongressDaily reports. [click link for full article]
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Who should attend? Risk adjustment management is the #1 strategic priority for Medicare managed care organizations today.
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The Centers for Medicare and medicaid services has a new project to learn how to persuade older Americans to begin using personal health records on the Internet. Four health plans that already offer PHRs will make them available to their Medicare customers through a CMS portal, mymedicare.gov. In the next 18 months, CMS will study [...]
Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and ranking member Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on Tuesday sent a letter to acting CMS Administrator Leslie Norwalk expressing concern about a proposed reduction in Medicare payments to hospitals by 2.4% in 2008 and 2009, CQ HealthBeat reports (CQ HealthBeat, 6/19). [click link for full article]
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Washington � The American Medical Association (AMA) is now airing television ads calling on Congress to stop Medicare physician payment cuts to seniors.
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Despite the increasing number of elderly nursing home patients with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, there are problems providing appropriate care. Two of the major difficulties are lack of Medicare reimbursement and poor staff training. How can we better care for these elderly patients?
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Excerpts from the Globe’s blog on the Boston-area medical community. A patient’s chance of surviving 30 days after suffering a heart attack or heart failure is better than average at four Massachusetts hospitals — Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Cape Cod Hospital, and Southcoast Hospital Group — according to newly released [...]
A Maryland health insurance company will join a handful of large insurers throughout the country in halting sales of a type of Medicare plan that could provide more options and services at a lower cost to the elderly.
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News that British Columbia has been fined $114,000 by Ottawa’s medicare police must have caused a few chuckles over at the B.C. Ministry of Health last week.
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Medicare posts on its website the mortality rates at hospitals for heart attacks and heart failures.
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By Peter Roper, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo. Jun. 23–The federal Department of Health and Human services has resumed its controversial practice of publishing report cards on the nation’s hospitals, based on federal Medicare information and each hospital’s own patient information.
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