Month: August 2011

Gov. Scott Walker's health secretary has declined to make or back applications for federal public health grants that could have totaled more than $9 million over the next five years. Health Services Secretary Dennis Smith hasn't signed onto grants that would have focused on fighting drug and alcohol abuse; assessing health impacts of public policies; and signing up state residents who qualify for state health programs, officials at the agency and other health groups said. The changes reflect a marked difference in the way the new Republican administration approaches questions of public health and federal grants compared with the administration of former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 8/4)

Aurora Health CarebizWatch has purchased Zion Clinic, a four physician medical group in Illinois. The acquisition brings Aurora's total number of Illinois-owned doctors to 16. Aurora entered the Illinois market in January 2009 when it acquired Northern Lake Medical Ltd., a 43-employee physician group with primary care clinics in Gurnee, Lindenhurst and Fox Lake. (MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 8/4)

Wellpoint Inc. (WLP), an Indianapolis-based health insurer that has been critical of the new federal health-care law, is among the top donors to Republican organizations active in the contests, including $450,000 to the RSLC and $250,000 to the Republican Governors Association. (BLOOMBERG, 8/4)

Numerous patients, medical professionals and transportation providers told Public Investigator they, too, were experiencing difficulties with LogistiCare after the Journal Sentinel reported Friday on the for-profit, Atlanta-based company's problems coordinating rides for Medicaid recipients in Wisconsin. Five weeks into LogistiCare's three-year contract with the state - which earns the company approximately $33 million per year while saving the state about $2.5 million - readers complained that patients are still arriving late to appointments, siblings aren't being permitted to ride together, and the company's mechanism for working with transportation providers is chaotic. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 8/4)

The Winona County Board of Commissioners approved plans Tuesday for Gundersen Lutheran to construct two wind turbines just north of Lewiston, Minn. In 2010, Gundersen Lutheran sought a permit to construct three turbines as part of their “Envision,” program, which works toward energy independence and green initiatives, and eventually modified the project to two turbines. (LA CROSSE TRIBUNE, 8/3)

Eight collaborating academic and health care partners in southeastern Wisconsin have awarded $775,000 in 17 individual grants to 46 researchers from academic and health care institutions in the Milwaukee area. Multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, stroke recovery and glaucoma are just a few of the medical conditions researchers at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the Medical College of WisconsinbizWatch will study with the grant money. (MILWAUKEE BUSINESS JOURNAL, 8/2)

Last year, the state prison system spent $16 million to cover the cost of pharmaceutical needs for inmates. A Republican state legislator wants to recoup some of that cost by charging prisoners a co-pay for all their medications. (WPR, 8/1)