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CMS Rates Nursing Homes
The Wall Street Journal reports that "the federal government is stepping up efforts to improve the quality of nursing-home care and now has an online tool consumers can use in evaluating facilities. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, will begin a pilot program this summer to see if cash incentives to nursing homes can improve the care they provide, especially in areas such as nurse staffing and preventable hospitalizations."
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Fort Myers, Fla.-Based Health Clinic Receives $1.4M Federal Grant For HIV/AIDS Services
The Fort Myers, Fla.-based McGregor Clinic has been awarded a five-year, $1.4 million grant from the federal government to fund HIV/AIDS services, the Fort Myers News-Press reports. The McGregor Clinic serves hundreds of people living with HIV/AIDS. Sharon Murphy, executive director of the clinic, said the funds will go toward extending office hours and hiring additional staff, including a case manager and nurses. The funds will also be used to establish a partnership with the of Light and Hope Development Center, a local organization that works on HIV/AIDS issues and assists pregnant women children, she said (Booth Reed, Fort Myers News-Press, 6/10).
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RNC Launches Ads Attacking Moderate Dems; PhRMA Considers Huge Campaign
Current ads sponsored by the Republican National Committee prod Democrats, while a very large planned campaign by drug makers could take flight soon.
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BCBS Increases Rates For Individuals In Michigan, Pennsylvania

The following summarizes news about BlueCross BlueShield Association plans increasing rates in Michigan and Pennsylvania. *Michigan: State Attorney General Mike Cox (R) on Thursday filed a petition to stop a proposed rate increase by the not-for-profit Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for more than 400,000 individual policyholders, the Detroit Free Press reports. The average proposed rate hikes would be 56% for non-elderly Michigan residents buying their own insurance; 42% for policyholders with group conversions; and 31% for seniors with Medigap policies. According to BCBS, the rate increases are necessary to counter the growing losses the insurer is experiencing in the individual policy market (Anstett, Detroit Free Press, 5/21). Michigan"s Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation has 30 days from June 2 to schedule a hearing on the petition (Rogers, Detroit News, 5/22). *Pennsylvania: Not-for-profit Independence Blue Cross is seeking to increase rates by 20% to 58% for individuals and families who buy individual health plans, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports (Von Bergen, Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/22). Under the proposal currently before the state Insurance Department, about 30,000 Pennsylvanians would be affected by the increases, including 20,000 Nongroup Personal Choice policyholders; 10,000 Nongroup Special Care Hospital coverage subscribers; and 2,800 Nongroup Basic Blue Cross Hospital coverage policyholders (Warner, Philadelphia Daily News, 5/22). The insurer said the increases are necessary because it is paying out more in claims than it has earned through premiums. The rate increases will go into effect on July 1 if the Pennsylvania insurance commissioner takes no action (Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/22). Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2009 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.


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