December 13, 2011
The Health Benefit Exchange Board recommended Monday a broad based funding approach to pay for a federally mandated state health insurance program, now estimated to cost up to $30 million in 2014 and $60 million by 2016.
“The board is in agreement there should be some sort of a transactional fee, a broad based fee, and funding for the exchange that needs to come from multiple places to ensure sustainability and stability,” said Rebecca Pearce, Health Benefit Exchange executive director. [...more]
December 9, 2011
The American Lung Association is lambasting Maryland as the “third worst” state in the country for helping smokers quit the habit, even while it has the fifth lowest smoking rate in the nation at 15%. [...more]
December 8, 2011
The state could save millions of dollars by comparing the list of people receiving Medicaid with the Social Security Administration’s Master Death File, according to a report from the Office of Legislative Audits. [...more]
December 5, 2011
A dramatic rise in home births by unlicensed practitioners, as well as in the number of people requesting United States birth certificates for babies born that way, has led a state agency to issue a statement on health and safety guidelines for women wanting to deliver their children at home. [...more]
December 1, 2011
Health Department officials told a Senate committee Wednesday the department would immediately begin to provide emergency assistance to those in the top tier of the Developmental Disabilities Administration waiting list. The step is the first of four major steps outlined by the department to make up for a $34 million budget blunder that left thousands on the DDA waiting list without services for a period of at least two years. [...more]
November 28, 2011
Health Secretary Joshua Sharfstein will try to explain to the Senate Finance Committee Wednesday how the Developmental Disabilities Administration left $38 million unspent over the last two years while 6,500 patients sit on a waiting list for state services. Most of the caregivers and advocates for the disabled were angry and upset after MarylandReporter.com reported about the unspent money three weeks ago, a surplus that forced $25 million in potential state aid to be reverted to the general fund. We profile three of the affected families. [...more]
November 22, 2011
The state’s Health Benefit Exchange Board has five weeks to deliver recommendations to the legislature outlining how a federally mandated health insurance exchange program will be implemented and paid for. The report is due in late December to give the General Assembly time to pass legislation affecting the exchange, which is supposed to be up and running by January 2014. [...more]
November 21, 2011
In what the American Medical Association calls an “annual crisis,” physicians are once again facing a cut in Medicare reimbursements – almost 30% in 2012 – unless the U.S. Congress acts by January 1. This year, though, there appears to be an added layer of uncertainty because of the supercommittee, whose decisions are due this week.
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November 9, 2011
The beleaguered Developmental Disabilities Administration, with thousands on its waiting list for care, left $25 million in state funding unspent over the last two years, and wound up having to return the money to the state’s general fund.
The agency also had a $12 million surplus in its federal Medicaid match, meaning there was a total $38 million left over.
The surpluses had apparently been going on for some time, leaving millions in the kitty that were supposed to be spent on people with some of the most severe physical and mental disabilities, many unable to care for themselves. [...more]
October 31, 2011
For the first time, small businesses and nonprofit organizations can get financial help for the health care coverage they offer their workers. But so new is the program, part of the Obama health care reform, that campaigns to alert businesses are taking place around the country, including in Maryland. [...more]
