News in brief - Aug. 4, 2008
Miss. scheduled to cut Medicaid physician pay -
HHS imposes first HIPAA sanctions
Miss. scheduled to cut Medicaid physician pay
The Mississippi Medicaid program will cut physician pay on Aug. 6 by $15.8 million unless lawmakers break a deadlock and adopt legislation to fill a $90 million Medicaid deficit for fiscal 2009. That's between 5% and 10% for most CPT codes.
The Legislature reconvenes on Aug. 4 and is considering proposals to close the deficit through hospital tax and tobacco tax increases.
The Mississippi State Medical Assn. would accept the hospital tax, tobacco tax or a combination, said its president, J. Patrick Barrett, MD. Preventing the pay cut will be key to maintaining physician Medicaid participation, he said.
About 90% of doctors see Medicaid patients, but most restrict their numbers.
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HHS imposes first HIPAA sanctions
A Seattle hospital system in July agreed to pay $100,000 to settle potential privacy and security violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act -- the first such sanctions levied by the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services.
Providence Health & Services also agreed to implement an improved plan to safeguard patients' health information.
The agreement was prompted by several breaches at Providence facilities between 2005 and 2006. The incidents involved stolen tapes and laptops that contained the protected health information of nearly 400,000 patients. Providence admitted no liability.
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