Tag: Medicare
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Medicaid expansion would have ‘a big health impact,’ and critical-access hospitals need to change, rural-health expert says
Expansion of the Medicaid program under federal health-care reform would have a major beneficial impact on the health of Kentucky, a doctor who ran the state and national rural-health agencies...
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W. Va. plans private-public model to provide school breakfast, improve child health, fight obesity; could this approach help Ky.?
By Molly Burchett Kentucky Health News Breakfast has been said to be the most important meal of the day, and it can be important in fighting obesity. Policymakers in West...
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Survey shows most rural doctors in Southern Kentucky aren’t ready for electronic health records; grant will help them switch
A recent survey found that 63 percent of rural health providers in Southern Kentucky have not installed electronic health records software, so more than 280 of the small and rural...
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Death rates for heart and pneumonia patients at critical-access hospitals are rising nationally, study finds
Death rates are rising at rural critical-access hospitals for Medicare patients who have heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia, according to a study published in the Journal of the American...
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Kentucky hospitals gave $1.96 billion to communities in 2011, including $576.7 million cover of Medicare, Medicaid shortfalls
In 2011, despite economic and financial obstacles, Kentucky hospitals’ estimated value of benefits to their communities up 17 percent from the year before, to $1.96 billion. So says the Kentucky...
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Commission says drastic changes to doctor pay and cuts to wasteful services can fix Medicare problem without tax hikes
A national advisory panel says “drastic changes” in how Medicare reimburses doctors and other providers are needed to shore up Medicare’s finances, improve patient outcomes and rein in health care...
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Fiscal-cliff deal revives program that helps rural hospitals dependent on Medicare; 200 in nation, 10 in Kentucky
Even though most of the hospital industry wasn’t happy with the fiscal-cliff deal that will only pay half the $30 billion needed to avoid a 27 percent Medicare fee cut...
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Health care decisions by and for Medicare patients differ widely by place; Lexington big in back surgery, low in mastectomy
All medicine involves decisions and, according to a new series of nine reports published by the Dartmouth Atlas Project, those decisions differ drastically by location for Medicare patients. In the...
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Northern Kentucky included in Medicaid’s pilot program to increase data about quality of health care
The Health Improvement Collaborative of Greater Cincinnati, which includes much of Northern Kentucky, is included as one of three regions to participate in a program designed to bolster availability of...
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Lame-duck Congress could cut funding for critical access hospitals; more than two dozen in Kentucky
Critical access hospitals, which in most states are rural facilities with fewer than 25 beds, may be under attack in the lame-duck session of Congress, former national rural-health director Wayne...