Tuesday, April 12, 2005

New data on Medicaid spending Data at StateHealthFacts.org, a site maintained by the Kaiser Family Foundation. See State Medicaid Spending, SFY2003 and Federal Medicaid Spending, FY2004. See also the source of the data, the 2003 State Expenditure Report (Adobe Acrobat format) by the National Association of State Budget Officers and Grants to States for Medicaid, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2006, Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.  
  

CQ HealthBeat Obtains HHS List of States Using Accounting Tactics To Boost Federal Medicaid Funding Item in the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report - "CQ HealthBeat has obtained a document that HHS 'is using in a federal crackdown on dubious Medicaid accounting tactics.' The document 'names 15 states as potentially using the techniques, 20 as having agreed to drop them and 12 more whose use of the controversial techniques is still unknown,' according to CQ HealthBeat ...  
  

HMOs in Unstable Condition: Members Bolt to Other Plans Los Angeles Times story - "HMOs, once the top choice for Americans who get healthcare as a job perk, are so last century. Tightly controlled health maintenance organizations have steadily lost ground over the last decade to preferred provider organizations, which offer greater choice of physicians and hospitals and direct access to specialists — though at a higher price. HMOs garnered only 25% of the employer-based health benefits market last year, down from a high of 31% in 1996, according to a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation... During the same period, PPOs nearly doubled their market share to 55%." [Viewing Los Angeles Times stories requires registration, which is free].