Medicaid

At a time when states are striving to expand healthcare coverage, the Bush administration is pressing ahead with plans to cut nearly $4 billion in aid for public hospitals and other providers of last resort for the uninsured. The cuts would affect hospital funding provided by Washington as part of Medicaid, the federal-state program known in California as Medi-Cal.

Less than 1% of Medicaid spending went to healthcare for illegal immigrants, according to a study that the researchers said defied a common belief that they are a bigger drain on taxpayer money. The study, published March 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Assn., appeared in an issue of the journal devoted to access to medical care in the United States. Concern has been growing over rising U.S.

Los Angeles County supervisors are urgently lobbying Congress this week to block a Bush administration proposal that some fear would strip millions of dollars from the five public hospitals that treat the county's poorest residents. County officials say the nation's second-largest public health system is in danger of losing $200 million a year in federal money under the president's cost-saving plan.

Medicaid rolls declined in many states after Congress imposed new documentation requirements, but most of the drop-off appears to be among people eligible for coverage, not illegal immigrants. A law that took effect July 1 requires states to obtain evidence of citizenship and nationality when determining whether people are eligible for Medicaid. The Government Accountability Office surveyed states on the effect of the new rules.

The Bush administration's fumbled takeover of prescription drug coverage for the elderly poor and disabled has a klutzy resemblance to its botched relief effort for Hurricane Katrina victims. This disaster has a much lower profile, of course. TV crews have not been following old folks in wheelchairs out pharmacy doors after they've been denied the medicine they need to blunt debilitating pain, or even to stay alive.

Tenet Healthcare Corp. said Tuesday that it would pay $7 million to settle all charges brought by the Florida attorney general against the hospital chain, including claims of bilking the government's Medicare and Medicaid insurance plans. Tenet, whose shares rose more than 3%, said it would record the payment as a charge in the 2005 fourth quarter. Florida had sued the nation's No. 2 U.S.

Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings became the second U.S. medical-testing company in a week to be ordered to turn over billing documents for California's $29-billion Medicaid program. LabCorp reported the subpoena, received Monday, in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Burlington, N.C.-based company said it would cooperate with the California attorney general's probe.

AmeriPath Inc., which provides diagnostic services to physicians and hospitals, said its lab testing unit had received a subpoena from California seeking information about Medicaid billing. Specialty Laboratories, a Valencia company AmeriPath acquired this year, was subpoenaed for documents "relating to billings to the California Medicaid program" for time frames ranging from three to 10 years, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based AmeriPath said.

State health officials said Tuesday that they will delay enforcement of a controversial federal law intended to keep illegal immigrants from improperly receiving government-funded medical care, fearing that hasty action could imperil coverage of U.S. citizens. The new rule would for the first time require 50 million Medicaid enrollees nationwide to provide identification and proof of citizenship to receive benefits.

About a fifth of federally funded transplant programs fail to meet the government's minimum standards for patient survival or perform too few operations to ensure competency, a Los Angeles Times investigation has found. The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has allowed 48 heart, liver and lung transplant centers to continue operating despite sometimes glaring and repeated lapses, the newspaper's review found. There are 236 approved centers nationwide.