Louisiana Medicaid overhaul begins its first day in operation
Southeast Louisiana is the first region to shift to Bayou Health

White House Calls Increases in Health Insurance Rates Too High
The Obama administration ordered a health insurance company to rescind the rate increases it sought or justify its refusal to do so.

La.'s new Medicaid managed care program begins
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's Medicaid program is starting to provide health care through private managed care networks in nine parishes around New Orleans, the first step in a sweeping revamp of the program that provides care to the poor. The insurance-based model, called Bayou Health, launched Wednesday in southeast Louisiana. The roll-out of the changes hasn't been without startup ...

Super Blow: Student-Athlete Health Insurance Covers Concussion Testing
As future Super Bowl stars make their way through the ranks on high school football fields, preventing and treating concussions increasingly plays a key role in the game plan.

LSU making $15 million in cuts to Interim LSU Public Hospital
'There will be an impact on patients,' LSU executive says

States are all over the map on health overhaul
A list of states and their uninsured population, grouped according to the progress they have made in establishing health insurance exchanges, a linchpin for expanding coverage under President Barack Obama's ...

Colo. dispute over Medicaid patient 'shared responsibility' simmers and other state Medicaid news
Colorado policymakers are wrestling to bring the burgeoning Medicaid budget under control, as critics fear health insurance for the poor will consume the state budget. But even the smallest cuts or cost-shares raise protests from patient advocates and objections that such measures will prove more expensive in the long run.

Another former official from horseman's association gets time behind bars
Mona Hebert Romero sentenced to 13 months in prison

Medicaid managed care takes hold in Louisiana; Florida report notes problems in longer waits for long-term care help
The first-stage of Gov. Jindal's Medicaid restructing begins today. In Florida, the legislative report casts doubt on some efforts there to revamp the system. Meanwhile, Illinois' governor is urging changes to Medicaid to help fix the state's budget.

A Republican rift on health exchanges
The Obama administration has spent $729 million laying the groundwork for health insurance exchanges, according to a White House report published this morning. That number will likely tip over $1 billion in the coming months, as states continue setting up the new marketplaces where Americans will shop for health insurance beginning in 2014. As the above map from the Kaiser Family Foundation ...