2012 May Health Care News

The May issue of Health Care News reports on the lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas, who aim to block President Barack Obama’s controversial preventive medicine policy, which mandates all employers and institutions that provide insurance to their employees and students must supply contraceptives, abortifacients, and sterilization services without co-pays.

Also in this issue:

• A year after a controversial new bidding system was introduced, many Medicare beneficiaries are facing difficulties or delays as providers are squeezed by dramatically lower prices on lifesaving durable medical equipment and services.

• A group of Republican lawmakers has introduced a new plan to return more power to the states by combining Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program into a single block grant.

• A new report details Illinois state government’s costly promises to workers, concluding the state cannot afford to continue giving free or subsidized health care to retired state workers.

• The transfer of Kentucky’s Medicaid program into three managed care organizations has failed, with the state already falling behind in meeting payment demands.

• To comply with a state law, Texas is banning Planned Parenthood and other abortion affiliates from participating in the Texas Medicaid Women’s Health Program--setting up a showdown with the Obama administration over government funding for the controversial organization.

• Oregon is moving forward with an Obamacare insurance exchange, funded in part by a tax on health insurance premiums. The state is also asking for $2.5 billion from federal taxpayers to help pay for it all.

• A nonpartisan audit of the department administering Wisconsin’s medical assistance programs under the umbrella of Medicaid indicates fraud, waste, and inefficiencies may be costing taxpayers millions.