Month: January 2013

Several dozen legislators are renewing their call for answers about what's going on with LogistiCare, Wisconsin's problem-plagued medical transportation provider. Fifty-one legislators sent a letter in September to the co-chairs of the state's Joint Committee on Audit, questioning, among other things, LogistiCare's tracking and handling of complaints and the state's oversight of the company. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 1/9)

In the medical world, the value of chiropractic has long been a point of debate. In Wisconsin politics, however, the value of chiropractors appears to be rapidly increasing, as evidenced by the large amount of money they gave to legislative candidates last cycle. (CAPITAL TIMES, 1/8)

Over the past four months, LogistiCare has received more than 7,000 valid complaints about rides not showing up or arriving late to take Medicaid patients to dialysis, cancer treatment and other medical appointments. Hold times on LogistiCare's hotlines have exceeded the time allowed under the company's state contract more than 60% of the time. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 1/7)

Up to 800 smokers from the Madison and Milwaukee areas are being recruited for a study of whether a pill, a patch or a patch and a lozenge best help people quit smoking. "We'll not only determine which works better," Dr. Timothy Baker, associate director of the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, said in a statement, "but also whether one approach works better with some types of smokers than does the other." (WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL, 1/3)

ThedaCare Physicians and Marshfield Clinic received the highest overall scores among 19 medical groups in Wisconsin for their performance on a sampling of quality measures in a special edition of Consumer Reports. The edition, available in January, contains a 20-page insert on the performance of medical groups on seven quality measures, such as controlling bad cholesterol in patients with vascular disease. (JOURNAL SENTINEL, 1/3)