Top Stories
Blue Cross Blue Shield posts 14 percent profit in 2011
The Blues finished 2011 well in the black. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield led the state’s top insurers last year with a 14.1 percent profit margin. (WHN, 5/17)
Concordia to offer physician assistant program
Concordia University Wisconsin will begin offering a physician assistant program in May 2013. The 26-month, full-time, year-round program is designed to prepare students to become physician assistants with an emphasis on primary care and preventative medicine. (BUSINESS JOURNAL, 5/17)
Health care costs for family of 4 top $20,000
There’s a good chance that health care costs for the typical family of four now are higher than their annual mortgage payment. Health care costs are projected to reach $20,728 this year for a family of four insured through the most common health plan offered by employers, according to the annual Milliman Medical Index. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 5/16)
Business up at fertility clinics
The Madison area’s two fertility clinics seem to be getting busier, possibly because the economy has started turning around. In-vitro fertilization, or IVF, which can cost about $15,000, rarely is covered by insurance. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 5/15))
Effort to streamline enforcement of licensed professionals worries some
The state agency that investigates wrongdoing by doctors, funeral directors, dentists and other licensed professionals has temporarily suspended a controversial new policy aimed at “vigorously” reducing enforcement of cases that administrators say are unnecessary. The Department of Safety and Professional Services policy took effect April 10 but was put on hold twice, most recently May 6, amid concerns it goes too far in keeping complaints against professionals from reaching the boards that review them. (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 5/14)
Assisted living center faces license revocation
Wisconsin regulators have threatened to revoke the license of an assisted living center in Menomonee Falls run by Assisted Living Concepts, a Wisconsin company whose centers have been cited for serious violations in several states. The Department of Health Services this month threatened to revoke the license of Tamarack Place, N84 W17147 Menomonee Ave., for not providing adequate nursing services and other violations. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 5/14)
Clergy partnering with mental health organizations to assist those in need
The Rev. Stephen Savides has a discretionary fund at First Congregational United Church of Christ in Appleton that is used for much more than helping parishioners with rent and gasoline assistance. Savides calculated the single highest expense the money has been used for within the past year is mental health services. (APPLETON POST CRESCENT, 5/11)
Social marketing, video seek to cut Milwaukee’s infant mortality rate
One city. One focus. One hundred women. That was the message presented Wednesday when the Milwaukee Health Department, in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Zilber School of Public Health, launched a social marketing campaign to reduce Milwaukee’s infant mortality rate and increase healthier birth outcomes. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 5/10)
Walker touts health-care program in new ad
Republican Gov. Scott Walker launched a new ad Wednesday touting how much he has put into state health-care programs. The positive spot pushes back against criticism from Democrats who have blasted him for cuts to BadgerCare Plus that are expected to result in more than 17,000 people being dropped from the program for low-income people. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 5/10)
Smith rejects claim that Family Care is in trouble, ready to ask for third extension
The Department of Health Services is preparing to ask for a third extension of its Family Care waiver, state officials said Tuesday. The announcement comes after Representative Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee, and other Democrats chastised Secretary Dennis Smith for keeping them in the dark about a March 28 letter from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services outlining a list of conditions the state must address to continue receiving federal funding beyond May 14. (WHN, 5/9)
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