money flow

Oregon Receives $25.8 Million in Performance Bonus from CMS

The governor, together with legislators, will determine how that money will be spent during the upcoming legislative session
December 20, 2012 – Lawmakers will have $25.8 million at their disposal when the legislature convenes next February -- with no strings attached. Yesterday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services made the announcement, saying Oregon is among 23 states receiving performance bonuses for enrolling children in its Medicaid program, known as the Children’s Health Insurance Program. In Oregon, that meant 289,802 children participated in that program during fiscal 2012. Read More >>

Oregon’s Health Exchange Plows Ahead Despite Unknowns

Cover Oregon, the state’s new health exchange created under the Affordable Care Act, faces plenty of uncertainties but presses full speed ahead to meet federal deadlines.
December 19, 2012 -- With the nod of approval from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid to run a health insurance exchange, Cover Oregon is plowing forward toward implementation. It’s scheduled to have a Web-based, one-stop marketplace up and running by next October, while coverage for the uninsured and small businesses will be available in January 2014. Read More >>

Kaiser Permanente Rewards Its Physicians with Steep Bonuses

Its 1,200 doctors will receive bonus checks ranging from $6,000 and $21,000 in January
December 18, 2012 -- It’s not unusual for health insurers to reward physicians with bonuses after they tally their financial records at year’s end. Up until now, Kaiser Permanente based those bonuses on specific quality targets such as the percentage of women screened for breast cancer or the initiation of drug and alcohol treatment. That was the case in 2010, according to a memorandum obtained by The Lund Report sent by Dr. Sharron Higgins, then president and executive medical director. She told its full-time senior physicians they could expect to receive a gross payment of $2,500 in February 2011, while another at-risk payment could be paid out in March 2011 “after the financial books for 2010 close.” Read More >>

Medicaid Expansion Offers Richer Benefits to 200,000 Oregonians

The public has 30 days to comment before the Oregon Heath Policy Board makes a decision
  December 13, 2012 -- The 200,000 Oregonians expected to qualify for Medicaid coverage in 2014 will receive more robust benefits if the Oregon Health Policy Board approves a recommendation from the Medicaid Advisory Committee.  Read More >>

Regence BlueShield Made Serious Multimillion Dollar Accounting Mistakes

The accounting errors were discovered when the Washington Insurance Commissioner completed a financial exam of Regence and its parent corporation, Cambia Health Solutions, earlier this year
December 11, 2012 -- Regence BlueShield and its parent company Cambia Health Solutions made sloppy mistakes in their reporting practices, sometimes to the tune of millions of dollars, according to a Lund Report review of the insurer’s most recent Washington state financial exam. The examination was completed earlier this year and covers the insurer’s work through the end of 2010. Regence BlueShield is the Washington subsidiary of Portland-based Cambia, which also owns Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon and Blues plans in Utah and Idaho. Read More >>

Don Berwick: Medicare Payments Favor Hospitals

The former administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services speaks at a conference in Portland next week
December 6, 2012 – Dr. Don Berwick believes the Triple Aim is critical to the success of healthcare reform over the next few years. That means better care for individuals, better health for populations and lower healthcare costs. Read More >>

Future of Tobacco Settlement Funds Faces Legislature

Coalition urges lawmakers to devote those funds to prevention and has the support of former Attorney General Hardy Myers
December 4, 2012 -- An advocacy coalition of healthcare and public health organizations is seeking legislative support next session on a proposal to spend Oregon’s share of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) funds on prevention and community based-health initiatives. Read More >>

State Officials Insist Hospitals Not Overpaid Under Provider Tax

But the specific amount of money that hospitals get back is not open to public disclosure, according to Judy Mohr-Peterson
November 29, 2012 -- Poor Oregonians will receive an extra $2.033 billion in healthcare from mid-2011 through mid-2013, according to the latest estimates of the impact of a state tax on hospitals. Yet even many within the industry still don’t understand the state’s so-called provider tax, according to Judy Mohr-Peterson, director of medical assistance programs with the Oregon Health Authority. Read More >>

Salaries on the Rise Among Salem Hospital’s Top Executives

Salem Health also has a Honolulu-based subsidiary, Willamette Valley Insurance Corp., which exists solely to provide insurance to its parent company
November 21, 2012 -- President Norman Gruber made $877,502 in the hospital’s 2011 fiscal year, up 10 percent from the previous year. Chief Medical Offer William Holloway’s compensation climbed 11.4 percent, to $576,945. Neither man has fully recovered from pay cuts experienced in 2010, when salaries of the hospital’s top paid employees fell 15 percent. But the trend is clear, with paid officers at the nonprofit hospital getting an average raise of 12.4 percent last year. Read More >>

Agency Focuses on Early Childhood Interventions

The Children's Relief Nursery, which was acquired By LifeWorks NW, raised more than $60,000 at first post-merger fundraiser
November 5, 2012 -- Portland chefs put on a show last month for the Children's Relief Nursery – and brought in at least $60,000 from ticket sales as well as silent and live auction items for the organization, according to Susan Lyon-Myrick, marketing coordinator of LifeWorks NW, adding that final receipts had not been calculated. Read More >>
Syndicate content

© Copyright 2013 by The Lund Report | Privacy Policy Development by: Roger Leigh | Design by:  Parachute Strategies