Thursday, January 15, 2004

Review of The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's Medicaid Behavioral HealthChoices Program
An HHS Office of the Inspector General report (in Adobe Acrobat format) available at the Open Minds web site - "The HealthChoices program began in February 1997 under a waiver granted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) under section 1915(b) of the Social Security Act. The program has two components, physical health and behavioral health and is administered by Pennsylvania's Department of Public Welfare (DPW). Our objectives were to determine: (I) to what extent intergovernmental transfers or other financing mechanisms are used to maximize Federal Medicaid reimbursement, (2) if the contract procurement process conforms to Federal regulations and (3) if the profits1 (or losses) incurred by counties in administering this program are unreasonable."  
  

Health Spending Accelerated Again in 2002
Reuters Health story at Medscape - "U.S. spending on healthcare reached $1.6 trillion in 2002, according to official government statistics released Thursday, accounting for 14.9% of total domestic spending. The 9.3% increase over the previous year was more than twice the rate of growth for the economy as a whole, the fourth consecutive year that health spending has outpaced total economic growth. Hospital spending continued to account for the largest share of growth in health spending, rising 9.5% to $486.5 billion. Analysts from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), who produced the report, attributed the increases to a variety of factors, including hospitals' ability to win higher payments from insurance companies and higher wages resulting from a shortage of nurses and other health professionals." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].