Month: March 2014

MetaStar is collaborating with quality improvement organizations in neighboring states in hopes of maintaining some degree of influence over care for Wisconsin Medicare recipients after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services made contentious shifts to the program that could leave the state with a new QIO. (WHN, 3/11)

The Senate Committee on Health and Human Services passed two controversial bills Friday transferring oversight of Milwaukee's mental health system away from the Milwaukee County Board and excluding certain statements of apology by doctors from being used in legal or administrative action against them. Both bills passed 3-2 along party lines with Sens. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, and Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton, voting in opposition. (WHN, March 10)

Marshfield Clinic physicians picked Dr. Brian Ewert to serve as the first physician executive director of Marshfield Clinic Health System. The executive director, in coordination with the CEO, will perform executive duties for the clinic. A search for CEO is still underway. Both are hired, permanent positions. (WHN, 3/10)

The Assembly and Joint Committee on Finance have approved a bill aimed at including criminal defendants diagnosed with mental illness into treatment and diversion programs. However, it's now held up at the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Labor, where Committee Chair Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, has refused to take a vote due to his personal opposition to prescribing drugs for treating mental health issues, he told Wisconsin Health News. (WHN, 3/10)

Last month, Independent Physicians Network announced it was partnering with Trilogy Health Insurance to form a new HMO for Medicaid members in southeast Wisconsin. While it's Trilogy's first foray into Medicaid, the doctors in the Independent Physicians Network are old pros. (WHN, 3/7)

Ambulance providers would be able to recoup unpaid debts by collecting tax refunds from people who owe them money, under a bill that received a public hearing Wednesday by the Senate Committee on Workforce Development, Forestry, Mining, and Revenue. (WHN, 3/6)

Wisconsin’s 11 tribes have used gaming revenue, by far their largest source of income, to supplement ever-shrinking federal money to cover health care costs for their members. But there’s a broad range of gaming profit among the tribes, from the Forest County Potawatomi, which reported transferring about $244 million from gaming to tribal government in 2012, to the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, which reported about $4.6 million. (GANNET MEDIA, 3/5)

Wild Rose Community Memorial Hospital and ThedaCare announced plans to partner Monday. Wild Rose is linked to Community Heath Network, which said last month it's also joining ThedaCare. (WHN, 3/4)