Opposing the Health Law, Florida Refuses Millions
By KEVIN SACK
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — When it comes to pursuing federal largess, most of the states that oppose the 2010 health care law have refused to let either principle or politics block their paths to the trough. If Washington is doling out dollars, Republican governors and legislators typically figure they might as well get their share.
Then there is Florida. Despite having the country’s fourth-highest unemployment rate, its second-highest rate of people without insurance and a $3.7 billion budget gap this year, the state has turned away scores of millions of dollars in grants made available under the Affordable Care Act. And it is not pursuing grants worth many millions more.
Health insurer Humana posts 35 percent 2nd-quarter profit gain on higher Medicare enrollments
By Associated Press,
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Humana Inc. posted a 35 percent surge in second-quarter profit Monday, easily beating Wall Street views, as more people enrolled in the health insurer’s Medicare plans while existing members made less use of its health care services.The Louisville-based company, which has expanded into health care delivery, also raised its earnings forecast for the full year to a range of $7.50 to $7.60 per share, up from $6.70 to $6.90 per share. Analysts polled by FactSet predict, on average, an annual profit of $7.02 per share.
Humana credited the rosier outlook to a favorable trend in which a smaller percentage of premium dollars from its members are going to pay for medical claims, reflecting an industrywide slowdown in health care utilization.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/health-care/health-insurer-humana-posts-35-percent-2nd-quarter-profit-gain-on-higher-medicare-enrollments/2011/08/01/gIQApTvzmI_print.html
Medicare targeting hospital readmissions
Washington Post / August 1, 2011
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/health/articles/2011/08/01/medicare_targeting_hospital_readmissions/
State exploring health care shift for veterans
Posted July 31, 2011, at 1:06 p.m.
Last modified July 31, 2011, at 5:48 p.m.
Last modified July 31, 2011, at 5:48 p.m.
AUGUSTA, Maine — State officials are exploring ways to encourage veterans on Medicaid to shift some or all of their health care to the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, saving the state money and potentially improving benefits for veterans.
Reaping Millions in Nonprofit Care for Disabled
By RUSS BUETTNER
Medicaid money created quite a nice life for the Levy brothers from Flatbush, Brooklyn.
The brothers, Philip and Joel, earned close to $1 million a year each as the two top executives running a Medicaid-financed nonprofit organization serving the developmentally disabled.
They each had luxury cars paid for with public money. And when their children went to college, they could pass on the tuition bills to their nonprofit group.
Philip H. Levy went as far as charging the organization $50,400 for his daughter’s living expenses one year when she attended graduate school at New York University. That money paid not for a dorm room, but rather it helped her buy a co-op apartment in Greenwich Village.
Insurers told to cover contraception in full
Slashing the Price of Health With Common Sense
By DAVID BORNSTEINFixes looks at solutions to social problems and why they work.
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As health care costs continue to spiral out of control, it’s often forgotten that one of the best ways to lower health care expenditures is to reduce the amount of medical care that’s needed to keep people healthy. This is no revelation. However, because of the financial incentives in our health system, the things we can do to promote health, and prevent illness, are not prioritized.
Can Big Food Regulate Itself? Fat Chance
By MARK BITTMANMark Bittman on food and all things related.
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Life would be so much easier if we could only set our own guidelines. You could define the average weight as 10 pounds higher than your own and, voilà, no more obesity! You could raise the speed limit to 90 miles per hour and never worry about a ticket. You could call a cholesterol level of 250 “normal” and celebrate with a bag of fried pork rinds. (You could even claim that cutting government spending would increase employment, but that might be going too far.) You could certainly turn junk food into something “healthy.”
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