UnitedHealth In The Headlines: 7 Recent Developments To Other Top 10 Healthplan News
Centene to pay Texas $165M to settle Medicaid fraud allegation
Centene will pay Texas $165.6 million to settle the state’s investigation into if the payer violated Medicaid fraud laws, the Texas Attorney General’s Office said Sept. 19.
Centene made no admission of liability and maintains its business practices were legal, according to a news release from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office.
CVS Health Makes Progress Reducing Suicide Attempts Among Aetna Members
The company said in a Sept. 22 news release that suicide attempts among Aetna members decreased 15.7 percent through March 2022, compared to 2019 baselines. CVS Health, which owns Aetna, hopes to reduce suicide attempts among its health plan members by 20 percent by 2025.
10 Recent Findings By HHS’ Oversight Arm
From Medicare Advantage providers denying access to care unnecessarily to the nation’s organ transplant network being vulnerable to a cyberattack, these are 10 recent findings from HHS’ Office of the Inspector General:
An audit from the office released Sept. 12 found that New York improperly billed Medicaid by at least $84.3 million for nonemergency medical transportation services provided in New York City
Humana Playing Catch-Up in Medicare Advantage Growth Market
Humana executives told investors Sept. 15 it’s looking to match or exceed other payers that have outpaced it in Medicare Advantage growth over the last year, WDRB reported.
Humana’s Medicare Advantage growth rate was 11 percent from 2017 to 2021, while the industry average was 9 percent.
Dual-eligible Medicare Advantage plans not providing more equitable care, study finds
Medicare Advantage plans designed for dual eligible populations are not broadly outperforming plans not specifically catered to this population, a new study in Health Affairs found.
Researchers compared dual eligible special needs plans, known as D-SNPs, to traditional Medicare and typical Medicare Advantage plans.
Thousands in Community Funding Support Epic EHR Implementation | Top 5 News Of The Week
NextGen Releases New EHR Functionality for Foster Care Services
Health IT vendor NextGen Healthcare has announced the latest release of its integrated behavioral health suite, which now offers enhanced EHR functionality to support the delivery of foster care services.
NextGen says its Behavioral Health Suite is the first platform to integrate physical health, behavioral health, human services, and oral health in one software solution.
USDA Grants IA Health System Over $700,000 for Epic EHR Implementation
Iowa-based Washington County Hospital and Clinics (WCHC) was recently granted over three-quarters of a million dollars from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) to help fund an Epic EHR implementation.
The project is expected to take a year, with implementation set to begin in November of this year and rollout to be completed in November of 2023.
Thousands in Community Funding Support Epic EHR Implementation
Maryland-based Garrett Regional Medical Center (GRMC) has received $650,000 in community funding to start an Epic EHR implementation, according to Cumberland Times-News reporting.
The funding comes as a part of a $32.7 million Community Project Funding program supported by Congressman David Trone (MD-06). In May of 2022, Trone requested millions to deliver much-needed resources to Sixth District communities and restore neglected infrastructure.
Title X Clinics Push Preventive Care Access for Low-income Patients
The report, published by the HHS Office of Population Affairs, which also oversees Title X, found that 2021 saw more preventive care access at the clinics, with more women seeking cervical and breast cancer screenings than in 2020. In 2021, 324,536 women accessed a cervical cancer screening at a Title X clinic, while 364,731 accessed a breast cancer screening.
The Sequoia Project Issues Final Set of Information Blocking Resources
“The Sequoia Project is grateful to the public for taking the time to provide feedback on these documents, as well as to the members of the Information Blocking Compliance Workgroup (IBWG) and our subject matter experts whose collaboration and dedication were integral to the development of these resources,” Mariann Yeager, chief executive officer of The Sequoia Project, said in a press release.
Facebook Debuts A Reels API To Spotify’s Audiobooks Launch | Top 5 News Of The Week
Uber Investigates ‘Cybersecurity Incident’ After Reports of a Hack on the Company
“We are currently responding to a cybersecurity incident,” Uber said in a statement on Twitter. “We are in touch with law enforcement and will post additional updates here as they become available.”
Facebook debuts a Reels API for Sharing from third-party apps
Meta is going all in to expand the reach of its short video products. In the latest step to those offerings widely reachable, the company is launching a Facebook Reels API for developers to integrate into their apps. This will allow users to directly share Reels on Facebook pages from third-party apps using the “Share to Reels” feature.
Spotify announces the launch of audiobooks for U.S. listeners
The streaming company’s foray into audiobooks marks its latest attempt to make the platform a one-stop-shop for all things audio. Spotify introduced podcasts in 2015 and is now home to more than 4.4 million of them, according to its second-quarter earnings report
Google Co-Founder’s Flying Car Startup is Winding Down
Google co-founder Larry Page’s flying car startup Kittyhawk is winding down, the company announced Wednesday.
“We’re still working on the details of what’s next,” the company wrote in a LinkedIn post.
Alibaba Pledges $1 Billion to Cloud Computing Customers to Reignite Growth
Alibaba said it will invest $1 billion over the next three fiscal years to support its cloud computing customers as the Chinese e-commerce giant looks to reignite growth after a historical slowdown.
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