Insurance

A one-minute look at managed care news during the week of April 13, 2015, including a the official repeal of the sustainable growth rate formula and a look at the rising cost of generic drugs.

Missouri already spends $1.2 billion on Medicaid managed care in less than half its counties. The new plan would extend managed care to all Medicaid clients except the blind, disabled, and elderly. Meanwhile, in North Carolina, the CEO of the Medical Society argued against moving Medicaid to managed care, citing problems in other states.

Following last night's vote by the Senate to repeal the SGR bill, the largest society of oncologists praised the action by Congress to end this Medicare reimbursement controversy.

With just hours to go before an automatic 21% cut in Medicare fees was scheduled to take effect, the Senate passed legislation to repeal the much-reviled sustainable growth rate formula.

While Medicare is ready to pay for an annual spiral CT scan for long-term smokers, some doctors think it's an unnecessary procedure that might do more harm than good.

Cancer patients without insurance can be paying up to 43 times what Medicare pays for the same chemotherapy drugs, according to a new study published in Health Affairs from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.