medicaid

• Maryland

When spin and inconvenient truth collide

You can call it misinformation, spin control or propaganda. Regardless, there are things that some people insist on believing that collide with the inconvenient truths of history.

• Opinion

Why do poor kids get more cavities?

Despite decades of community water fluoridation, fluoride toothpaste use, improvements in nutrition and hygiene education, dental caries — also known as cavities — remain the most common childhood disease in America. They lead to pain, infections, nutritional deficits, lack of sleep, poor concentration, slower physical growth and a loss of about a dozen school hours per child.

• Opinion

Cancer cuts are too deep

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently unveiled proposed changes to their payment approach for cancer care services delivered to American seniors. Hidden within the complicated language and updated payment codes lies a harsh reality for community-based oncology centers and, more importantly, the patients we serve.

• Opinion

Medicare at 50

After five decades, federal health insurance program for elderly and disabled is nether broke nor broken, but could use a little tender loving care

• Health

Maryland seeks to expand access to drug, mental health treatment in the community

Maryland health officials are seeking permission to use federal dollars to pay for Medicaid patients to get substance abuse and mental health treatment outside the state's general hospitals.

By Meredith Cohn

Jul 28, 2015

• Health

State's health exchange settlement not a done deal

The federal government and other parties must approve a settlement deal between Maryland and Noridian Health Services over the botched health exchange before it is finalized.

By Andrea K. McDaniels

Jul 23, 2015

• Maryland

Gov. Hogan's decision dashes dreams of hassle-free commute

If you've ever used the Baltimore Beltway in rush hour to get from Owings Mills to Social Security headquarters or the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Woodlawn, you know it's a nightmare.

• Baltimore County

Baltimore County to charge for ambulance rides; change could raise $26M annually

Baltimore County's Fire Department will start charging for taking people to the hospital by ambulance -- a fee that will be collected from a patient's insurance company.

By Pamela Wood

Jul 20, 2015

• Health

220K enrollees: Maryland Medicaid expansion higher than forecast

Maryland is one of more than a dozen states where new Medicaid enrollees under President Barack Obama's health care law have surpassed initial projects, though state analysts say Maryland is actually spending less on its Medicaid population because federal health care reform is covering 100,000 people who used to get health care paid entirely by the state.

• Health

Hepatitis C drug can cure, if patients can get it

When a new generation of hepatitis C drugs began coming on the market about a year and a half ago, some feared the millions who could be cured of the potentially deadly disease would never get them. The price for a three-month daily course began at $1,000 a pill.

By Meredith Cohn

Jul 18, 2015

• Howard County

Policy decisions on aging issues are coming up [Senior Circles]

• Maryland

Audit finds Maryland owes $34 million for Medicaid claims

An inspector general has found that Maryland incorrectly approved and then billed Medicaid for services for the developmentally disabled in hundreds of thousands of cases and that the state owes the federal government more than $34 million, according to an audit to be released Tuesday.

By John Fritze

Jul 7, 2015

• Health

Hospitals save $100 million in Medicare costs

Maryland hospitals collectively generated more than $100 million in Medicare savings in the first year of a reformed payment system being watched closely by the federal government as a possible national model for reducing health care costs.

By Andrea K. McDaniels

Jun 29, 2015

• Baltimore City Paper

Wandering Eye: NYT exposes three-quarter houses, Supreme Court rules on rap lyrics, and more

• Opinion

The two-front war on heroin

State officials finally seem to realize that no one solution will solve the heroin crisis.

• Opinion

Expanding autism program could help thousands in Maryland

It's time that Maryland's Medicaid program followed the Maryland Commission on Autism's advice, and continued its tradition of supporting people with autism and their families by creating a plan to add slots to the Autism Waiver program.

• Opinion

Hogan's choice

Yes, the governor won based on his promise to rein in spending, but even on those terms, his decision on school funding makes no sense

• Health

University of Maryland Medical System to acquire Medicaid manage care firm

By Meredith Cohn

May 14, 2015

• Opinion

Why Baltimore burns for Freddie Gray

So better late than never: Freddie Gray's death and the protests that ensued are about race. We remain a city, state and nation far from achieving anything close to racial parity or fairness. No matter who started them, that's why the fires burn.

By Thomas F. Schaller

Apr 28, 2015

• Opinion

Big pharma should support the NIH

The Medical Innovation Act would give the NIH a funding boost by forcing large pharmaceutical companies that have committed wrongdoing to support the NIH. The bill would ask these companies to pay a relatively small additional sum into NIH research after they enter into settlement agreements with the government.

• Health

No Maryland hospital gets five stars under new federal rating system

No hospital in Maryland earned a top score under a new, simplified ranking system from the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services that adds to the collection of sometimes conflicting assessments of the nation's health care facilities.

By Meredith Cohn

Apr 16, 2015

• Opinion

Hogan must fund health care

Money the legislature set aside would assure access for hundreds of thousands of Marylanders.

• Opinion

Hogan's budget cuts will hurt Maryland

Hogan's failure to restore funding to health care budget is certain to prove costly

• Opinion

Hogan's choice

Gov. Larry Hogan can stand tough and play into the hands of those who would defeat him, or he can compromise and set himself on a path to a second term.

• News

Owner of imaging firm linked to patient deaths in indictment

The owner of an Owings Mills imaging firm already indicted for defrauding Medicare and Medicaid of more than $7.5 million was also accused in a new federal indictment this week of contributing to the deaths of four people whose disease and infection were not caught on X-rays becase employees were not qualified to read them.

By Meredith Cohn

Apr 10, 2015

• Opinion

Replace the Veterans Health Administration with veterans insurance

About a year ago, the scandal surrounding the deaths of veterans waiting for care from the Veterans Health Administration finally publicly exposed the VA's ineptitude. Since then, Congress conducted inquiries, the FBI commenced investigations, the secretary for Veterans Affairs resigned, and some regional directors were fired. Nearly anyone with any modicum of power in Washington, D.C., vowed to fix the VA. But the problem is this: The VA is simply too large and too bureaucratic for reforms to

• Opinion

Hogan plays chicken

The governor wants to be able to say he cut taxes, and he's willing to hurt a lot more people than he would help in the process

• Maryland

Nonprofits request increased county funding

The message from the majority of non-profits is that Carroll County government funding needs to be increased.

• Healthcare Policies and Laws

Audit says Maryland overbilled federal government $28.4M in health exchange launch

WASHINGTON — A long-awaited audit of Maryland's health insurance exchange has found that the state improperly billed the federal government for $28.4 million as former Gov. Martin O'Malley's administration struggled to launch what would become one of the most troubled websites in the nation.

• Maryland

GOP president would keep Obamacare

• Maryland

Friday is World Oral Health Day

Prevention key to dental, overall health

• Politics

Hogan's budget wins initial approval from Md House

• Health

More deliberation with health exchange contracts needed, board member says

A member of the board that oversees the state exchange where people buy insurance plans under health reform said the entity needs to take more care in approving contracts.

By Andrea K. McDaniels

Mar 17, 2015

• Opinion

Lung cancer screening: More harm than good?

Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) declared that Medicare would now be paying for lung cancer prevention with spiral CT scans. But such testing may be doing more harm than good.

• Opinion

'Headed in the right direction'

Despite some dust-ups of partisan rhetoric, the Republican governor and Democratic legislature show they can work together on the budget.

• Politics

House panel finds money for education, state employee pay raise

House lawmakers crafted a plan Friday to reverse many of Gov. Larry Hogan's budget cuts and restore spending in areas they thought he shortchanged — education, Medicaid and a pay raise for state employees.

By Michael Dresser

Mar 13, 2015

• Opinion

Md. False Claims Act needs qui tam provision

It's welcome news that Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh is proposing legislation that will expand Maryland's False Claims Act (the current law addresses Medicaid fraud only) , but the proposed legislation falls short because it lacks a vital element to the success of the federal False Claims Act: a strong, private qui tam provision.

• Maryland

Noah Feldman: Health care future rests with Roberts

• Opinion

Absurdity at the heart of the latest Obamacare challenge

Justice Kennedy turns a debate about four words in the ACA into a constitutional question.

• Sun Investigates

Medicaid fraud team investigates Maryland group home operator

The Maryland attorney general's Medicaid fraud control team is investigating LifeLine Inc., the state contractor that managed a group home for disabled foster children where a 10-year-old Baltimore boy died last summer.

By Doug Donovan

Feb 28, 2015

• Opinion

Reversing the overdose epidemic

While the state's investment in substance use treatment has never met the need for care, Maryland is building a solid public health and health care financing system that can be mobilized to address our overdose epidemic. The state can turn the corner on the tragic loss of life by taking full advantage of its health care system.

• Health

Audit critical of Medicaid procurement

State auditors are criticizing Maryland's health department for the way it hired a contractor to replace the system used to process Medicaid payments — and later having to suspend work with the company.

• Health

Extra health care enrollment time for those unaware of tax penalty

Marylanders who get dinged with a tax penalty this year because they didn't realize federal law requires everyone to have health insurance will get extra time to enroll in a plan.

By Andrea K. McDaniels

Feb 25, 2015

• Maryland

Cost of cuts outweigh savings

• Minority Groups

Rules protecting LGBT people from discrimination have a big impact on health care

Rules protecting LGBT people from discrimination have a big impact on health care

• Opinion

Businesses benefit from the state programs that aid their workers

Businesses benefit from the state programs that aid their workers.

• Maryland

March For Life in Annapolis next month [Letter]

• Maryland

Examine drop in enrollment [Editorial]

• Opinion

Hogan's Medicaid spending cuts threaten health of pregnant women, newborns

Hogan's Medicaid spending cuts

• Opinion

Hogan Medicaid cuts are penny wise, pound foolish

Gov. Larry Hogan's Medicaid cuts are penny wise, pound foolish.