New York City has failed to recover tens of millions of dollars in Medicaid reimbursements for services it provided to special-needs students in recent years.

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New York Schools Fail to Get Medicaid Money for Special-Needs Services

Two brothers’ journey to make a kidney transplant happen has taken them to the core of the national impasse between health care and immigration policies.

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Illegal Immigrant’s Transplant, Cheaper Over Life, Isn’t Covered

Dr. Donald M. Berwick, in charge of Medicare and Medicaid for the last 17 months, said that 20 percent to 30 percent of health spending is “waste” that yields no benefit.

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Parting Shot at ‘Waste’ By Key Obama Health Official

President Obama’s top Medicare official has resigned in the face of Republican pledges to block his confirmation in the Senate. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald M. Berwick notified colleagues Wednesday that he will step down Dec. 2, nearly a month before the expiration of his recess appointment. Read full article > >

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Medicare administrator Donald Berwick resigns in the face of Republican opposition

Big news is shaking up health policy circles just before the Thanksgiving holiday: Medicare administrator Don Berwick has stepped down from his position, effective next Friday, according to an e-mail sent to agency staff this morning. The White House intends to appoint Marilyn Tavenner, currently second-in-command at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, as Berwick’s replacement. Read full article > >

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CMS administrator Don Berwick steps down

Imagine if the Democrats offered Republicans a deficit deal that had more than $3 in tax increases for every $1 in spending cuts, assigned most of those spending cuts to the Pentagon, and didn’t take a dime from Social Security, Medicaid or Medicare beneficiaries. Republicans would laugh at them. But without quite realizing it, that’s the deal Republicans have now offered to the Democrats. Read full article > >

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Wonkbook: The GOP’s dual-trigger nightmare

The expiration of federal stimulus funding for Medicaid has dealt a blow to states still struggling to recover from the economic downturn, according to figures released Thursday. To compensate for the loss of extra federal Medicaid dollars this June, states have increased their spending on the program by an average of 29 percent in the current fiscal year. Read full article > >

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State spending on Medicaid up sharply

Citing rising costs, Wal-Mart is substantially rolling back coverage for part-time workers and significantly raising premiums for many full-time staff.

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Wal-Mart Cuts Some Health Care Benefits

Citing rising costs, Wal-Mart is substantially rolling back coverage for part-time workers and significantly raising premiums for many full-time staff.

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Wal-Mart Cuts Some Health Care Benefits

Raymond Fok, an uninsured illegal immigrant, stayed at a New York hospital because no one claimed him.

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Stuck in Bed for 19 Months, at Hospital’s Expense

McALLEN, Tex. — Sanjuanita Espinoza, 55, doesn’t seem like a gold mine for private insurers. She’s disabled, has high blood pressure and has no family to help with her care. Yet, to some Texas insurers, she is an opportunity. In August, the state picked five health plans in South Texas to oversee care for people such as Espinoza who are enrolled in Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor. This scenario is playing out across the country as states increasingly turn to private insurers to rein in the cost of Medicaid. Read full article > >

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Medicaid managed care is a growing but risky business

Complaining of abdominal discomfort and chronic bronchitis, 22-year-old Toshia Johnson, an unemployed mother on Medicaid, went to a hospital emergency room in Bend, Ore., more than two dozen times in the year that ended in June 2010. She was never admitted to the hospital and used the ER for routine care because, she says, it’s near her home and the care was free. But in the first six months of this year, after entering a state-funded program designed to reduce unnecessary ER use by Medicaid patients in central Oregon, Johnson has gone to the ER just once, after breaking her tailbone. In the first half of this this year, ER visits by the 400 patients in this program have declined by more than half from the same period last year, saving Medicaid $1 million, officials say. Read full article > >

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Hospitals seek more ER patients even as Medicaid tries to lessen demand

A new study is an effort to measure access to health care among people with public insurance.

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Children on Medicaid Shown to Wait Longer for Care

After sitting on the sidelines of the budget debate, President Obama will enter the fray Wednesday by setting targets for deficit reduction-and coming out in favor of cuts to Medicare and Medicaid. Still, there is a gap to bridge between Obama and…

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Obama to Propose Deficit-Reduction Plan

The call from the White House came late in the week. Rep. Paul Ryan was vowing to slash Medicaid in his 2012 budget proposal, the administration strategists explained, and they wanted to have a powerful response ready, complete with poignant stories of Americans who might lose their health coverage under the Republican plan.

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Individual stories are weapon of choice in fight over health-care law