Hospital ordered to pay millions in wages, benefits in union fight | NJ.com
A health employee union won a long and contentious court battle with Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus, N.J., that requires the for-profit owners to pay millions of dollars in back wages, retirement income, unpaid health benefits and to reverse some layoffs.
Massachusetts lears way for Hallmark Health acquisition | Boston Business Journal
The parent company of Tufts Medical Center will be allowed to acquire the smaller Hallmark Health system without an intensive state review, the state announced Thursday.
Dudek stepping down as Florida's AHCA secretary | Health News Florida
Liz Dudek, a longtime state health official who helped lead an overhaul of the Medicaid program, is retiring as secretary of the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration, Gov. Rick Scott announced Wednesday.
Obamacare options dwindling fast in Tarrant County | Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Low-income Texans were supposed to get a choice of subsidized healthcare plans under the Affordable Care Act. But that marketplace has failed in Texas as Aetna, Scott & White, Cigna and UnitedHealth all bailed on the state. Now, only Blue Cross Blue Shield will remain. American Health Underwriters, which helped people find low-cost plans, will completely change its business model.
Valeant avoids double-digit price hikes with 9.9% increases | STAT
In response to intensifying criticism over drug prices, Allergan chief executive Brent Saunders promised not to raise prices by more than single-digit percentage points. So far, no other head of a large drugmaker has spoken publicly about this notion or agreed to do the same thing.
The pill mill doctor who prescribed thousands of opioids and billed dead patients | Washington Post
A former Michigan doctor who ran a pill mill for 16 months, distributing tens of thousands of narcotics and controlled substances to people who didn't need them for medical purposes, has agreed to pay $200,000 to settle a federal lawsuit that accused him of, among other things, falsifying records to charge dead patients, subjecting patients to unnecessary tests and billing for office visits that never happened.
Remember the 'public option'? Insurance commissioner wants to try it in California | Kaiser Health News
With major insurers retreating from the federal health law's marketplaces, California's insurance commissioner said he supports a public option at the state level that could bolster competition and potentially serve as a test for the controversial idea nationwide.
Shaky Obamacare market adds to 'death spiral' fears | Bloomberg.com
Failing insurers. Rising premiums. Financial losses. The deteriorating Obamacare market that the health insurance industry feared is here. As concerns about the survival of the Affordable Care Act's markets intensify, the role of nonprofit “co-op” health insurers -- meant to broaden choices under the law -- has gained prominence. Most of the original 23 co-ops have failed, dumping more than 800,000 members back onto the ACA markets over the last two years.
Shumlin renews call to keep Vermont Health Connect | VTDigger.org
Gov. Peter Shumlin says Vermont Health Connect is working and that abandoning the exchange now would be a bad decision. The backlog of people seeking to change the life circumstances of their insurance policies is down to 1,200 — from more than 3,000 in June — and nearly 9 in 10 customers seeking to report a life change “experience a smooth process,” he said.
