Health Care
Lake County United Wins an Additional 100 Inpatient Beds for Behavioral Hospital in Waukegan
LI-CAN Wins Expansion of Medication-Assisted Treatment
Medical leaders and practitioners attend LI-CAN’s Medication-Assisted Treatment conference to fight opioid addiction.
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The region’s two largest hospital chains will begin providing MAT to opioid users in their emergency departments (EDs). LI-CAN asked the chains to change their ED protocols in 2017 after hearing story after story of opioid users overdosing fatally after being discharged quickly from EDs when they survived previous overdoses. “We asked them to stop missing these opportunities to interrupt the deadly progression of this disease,” said LI-CAN Co-chairperson Rev. Gideon Pollach. “We brought them a proposal based on a Yale study showing you can save lives by starting MAT in the emergency room, instead of just discharging these patients with a referral to treatment. Now that the two biggest chains have said yes, we will work to make this the standard approach to handling opioid overdoses in the ED.”
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30 doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants received training needed to receive a federal waiver to prescribe buprenorphine, a highly effective MAT drug. These new prescribers will help alleviate the shortage of practitioners offering the drug on Long Island.
- A group of veteran MAT practitioners launched a groundbreaking MAT Learning Collaborative to provide ongoing peer support, education and clinical mentorships for fellow practitioners. “A learning collaborative is one cornerstone to a functioning MAT infrastructure on Long Island,” said Dr. Leslie Marino, an addiction psychiatrist who has served as LI-CAN’s medical advisor.
GCC wins Medicaid Expansion in Ohio
Greater Cleveland Congregations takes much credit for Medicaid Expansion in Ohio, which gives an additional 275,000 Ohioans access to Health Care. Starting in 2012, GCC created the NEO-MEC coalition with hospitals and other interests, held a 1200-person Assembly at Olivet Institutional Baptist Church to show our support for expansion, lobbied in Columbus 4 times, wrote thousands of letters and made phone calls to our legislators, filled 3 busses on 3 days’ notice to rally on the Statehouse steps, canvassed in 3 local swing districts to urge voters to contact their legislators, wrote an op-ed in the Plain Dealer, and collected 2,500 signatures in 3 weeks during a ballot initiative.
On October 21st, the Controlling Board voted to approve the federal funds to expand Medicaid, and on December 21st, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld this decision.
Common Ground Health Care Co-op Enrollment Surges
Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative, a creature of an Obamacare initiative for nonprofit customer-owned health plans, has enrolled more than 2,200 Wisconsinites so far — and 75 percent to 80 percent of them enrolled via the online health-insurance marketplace.
Bob De Vita, chief executive officer of Brookfield-based Common Ground, said he is confident the co-op will meet his goal of signing 10,000 people by the end of 2014.
Common Ground Launches Healthcare Cooperative
Common Ground IAF in Southeastern Wisconsin has a solution to skyrocketting healthcare costs: the formation of their own health insurance company: The Common Ground Healthcare Cooperative (CGHC).
Targeting small businesses, non-profits and individuals in the seven counties of Southeastern Wisconsin, the non-profit, member governed cooperative will launch January 1, 2014. The cooperative is funded with a $56 million loan from the federal government through the Affordable Care Act.
Non-profit means any surplus will be invested back into the company for the benefit of its members, helping keep premium costs lower. The organization focuses on working with doctors, hospitals, agents and members so that the best healthcare can be provided at a reasonable rate. A member elected board of directors will give participants a say in how the cooperative operates and – by keeping the books transparent – each individual will know exactly what their premium is used for.
Together the CGHC and Common Ground have initiated the process of enrolling 25,000 to 50,000 between 2012 and 2017.
GBIO Health Care Cost Containment Action
Over 200 GBIO leaders gathered major health providers, insurers, and healthcare system officials to examine their progress in adhering to the targets of landmark health care cost containment legislation passed in 2012.
The action received extensive coverage from major media:
Could Medicaid expansion decrease drug court costs, save local taxpayer dollars? Cleveland judge says yes.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge David Matia estimates that area residents could save millions in local taxes if the offenders he sees in drug court had health insurance. And if Ohio were to expand Medicaid, as being debated by state legislators, many of the defendants in his court would qualify for the state a
Governors Fall Away in G.O.P. Opposition to More Medicaid
Under pressure from the health care industry and consumer advocates, seven Republican governors are cautiously moving to expand Medicaid, giving an unexpected boost to President Obama’s plan to insure some 30 million more Americans.... Every few days, state hospital associations and advocates for poor people issue reports asserting that the economic benefits of expanding Medicaid would outweigh the costs.
Gov. Kasich invokes 'the Good Book' while urging Medicaid expansion
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Gov. John Kasich touted expansion of Ohio’s Medicaid program in his State of the State address as the right and compassionate thing to do, invoking his personal faith and lessons from “the Good Book” as a guide in his decision. The governor urged lawmakers to examine their consciences and not let concerns about government spending, something conservative Republicans in the General Assembly have expressed, trump what he laid out as a moral imperative: helping the less fortunate.
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