Patients believe that access to their prescription medications for government health care programs should not be compromised by unfair reimbursement practices and policies to their community pharmacy providers, according to a new survey from the polling company, inc. %26quot;Our patients have it right: they know community pharmacies play a critical role in their health care,%26quot; [...]
Summaries appear below ofrecent news about children’s health coverage in Arkansasand New Jersey. Arkansas: The Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families last week announced plans to launch a statewide three-year effort to increase enrollment in ARKids First by about 22,000 children, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports. ARKids First is the state’s version of SCHIP. According to [...]
U.S. Rep.Tom Allen (D-Maine) on Wednesday announced a health care proposal that wouldaim to provide health coverage for all U.S. residents using a combinationof public and private plans, the Portland Press Herald reports. Allen is running againstsitting Sen. Susan Collins (R). The proposal would allow people to keep their existing health insurance orenroll in policies [...]
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt in a May 22 letterwrote that President Bush’s senior advisers would recommend he veto anylegislation that %26quot;would result in the loss of access to additionalbenefits or choices in the Medicare Advantage program,%26quot; the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports (Freking, AP/SanFrancisco Chronicle, 5/29). The letter was sent to Senate Finance Committee ranking member [...]
There arenot enough primary care physicians in Massachusettsto meet the demand for care created by the state’s health insurance law,according to health care reform advocates and medical professionals, the Boston Globe reports. Jon Kingsdale, executive director ofthe Commonwealth Health InsuranceConnector Authority,said that as of Jan.1, about 340,000 state residents, most of whom hadpreviously been uninsured, [...]
Reports examinerates of uninsured young adults, projections in federal Medicare, Medicaid spending. %26quot;Rite of Passage? Why Young Adults Become Uninsured and How New Policies Can Help,%26quot; Commonwealth Fund: According to the updated report, the number of uninsured adults ages 19 to 29 in the U.S. increased to 13.7 million in 2006 from 13.3 million in [...]
Nonprofit Cites “10 Best and Worst States” In providing government affordable health insurance assistance. District of Columbia, New York and Alaska top list, While Georgia, Arizona and California rank lowest. Americans who need help from the government in paying for health care coverage — if they experience unemployment or can’t afford private insurance — should [...]
The American Academy of Family Physicians applauds the Senate’s passage of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (HR 6331). Today’s vote is a first step to ensuring the stability of Medicare, which serves 44 million elderly and disabled patients, and TriCare, which serves 8.9 million military service members and their families. [...]
A CMS proposal under consideration would limit a practice used by pharmacy benefit managers known as “lock-in pricing” that can increase costs for beneficiaries enrolled in the Medicare drug benefit and bring them into the so-called “doughnut hole” coverage gap more quickly, the Wall Street Journal reports. The doughnut hole begins when total annual drug [...]
Proponents of the Massachusetts health insurance law “underestimated costs and overestimated revenue,” which has “obliged the state to spend more to subsidize insurance” to keep the “law’s promises,” Alan Sager and Deborah Socolar, directors of the Health Reform Program at the Boston University School of Public Health, write in a Boston Globe opinion piece. The [...]
