Month: September 2013

Work on a Medicare-based fee schedule for worker's compensation in Wisconsin has been delayed at the request of Rep. Daniel Knodl. R-Germantown, and Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, the chairmen of the Assembly and Senate labor committees. (WHN, 9/23)

This week marks the eighth annual Health Information Technology Week, dedicated to raising public awareness about the value of IT information that helps patients better manage their health in the digital age. MetaStar, the state's nonprofit quality improvement organization for health providers, launched the federally-designated Wisconsin Health Information Technology Extension Center in 2010 to help more hospitals and doctors transition to electronic health records. WHITEC is one of 62 Regional Extension Centers established by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology through funding from the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. (WHN, 9/20)

The state budget committee approved new powers Wednesday for the Department of Health Services to recoup assets from the families of deceased Medicaid members who were receiving long-term care. (WHN, 9/19)

The number of uninsured people in Wisconsin decreased 0.4 percent to 10.4 percent from 2010-2012, according to a survey released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Nationally, the number of people covered by private health insurance fell those three years, but Wisconsin's rate of privately insured individuals actually increased 0.4 percent to 69.4 percent and Wisconsin was one of 14 states and the District of Columbia to experience no statistical shift in public coverage. (WHN, 9/19)

Appleton-based ThedaCare became the first health care system in Wisconsin Tuesday to join the Mayo Clinic Care Network. (WHN, 9/18)