Rhode Island's health insurance exchange struggling | Providence (R.I.) Journal
Three years after the state began signing up residents for health insurance under the landmark Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, Rhode Island has a problem. Despite Rhode Island's outperforming most of the country in keeping down premiums and dramatically reducing the ranks of the uninsured, the state agency created to sell the coverage — HealthSource RI — has lagged in signing up new people for coverage, according to a report.
Legal battle over Medicaid heats up in Nebraska | North Platte (Neb.) Telegraph
A dozen lawyers crowded around a quartet of polished wooden tables in Omaha's federal courthouse Thursday, an indication of just how much is at stake in a legal fight over Nebraska's Medicaid program. Three companies that recently won state contracts stand to collect a share of roughly $1.2 billion a year to oversee health care for 233,000 Nebraskans on Medicaid.
'Flying Eye Hospital' debuts | Santa Cruz (Calif.) Sentinel
From the outside, the Flying Eye Hospital could blend in with other aircraft at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, Calif. But the massive MD-10 jet, donated by FedEx, hides a state-of-the-art teaching center for ophthalmology—medicine for the eyes.
Losses from Obamacare force Blue Shield to take a week off in September | San Francisco Business Journal
Blue Shield of California is shutting down for the four days after Labor Day to reduce its payroll-related liabilities, citing losses in California's Covered California Obamacare exchange.
Georgia anesthesia company to pay federal fine | Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Justice Department accused Sweet Dreams Nurse Anesthesia of giving free anesthetics to surgical clinics – and even offering to build one – in exchange for business contracts. The company will pay more than $1 million to settle the DoJ allegations.
Missouri PDMP: Quaint outlier, or harbinger of privacy backlash? | Politico
When officials try to explain why Missouri, alone among 50 states, has failed to create a monitoring program that tells doctors when patients are abusing narcotics, they point to a right-wing state senator who has repeatedly filibustered the program. The effort to block the program is championed by Rob Schaaf, a Republican family doctor who has intense worries about privacy — even going so far as to suggest the Pentagon is using health care databases to find out who has guns.
