�鶹Ů��

South Florida continues to be ripe for potential fraud, waste and abuse of Medicare and Medicaid through companies that provide nurses, therapists and other medical workers to patients in their homes, federal officials said this week in extending a moratorium on the licensing of new home health agencies in Miami-Dade, Monroe and Broward counties. The six-month moratorium, allowed under the Affordable Care Act, extends a ban that started in Miami-Dade and Monroe in July 2013 and Broward in January 2014. The moratorium also applies to home health agencies in Detroit, Dallas, Houston and Chicago. (Chang, 7/28)

Many of the Seattle area’s largest and best-known hospitals may fall short when it comes to preventing patients from acquiring potentially deadly infections during their stays, a new analysis shows. Of the region’s five biggest hospitals — including the University of Washington (UWMC) and Harborview medical centers — none achieved top ratings in Consumer Reports’ latest rankings, released Wednesday. All received low or middling scores both overall and for halting two newly added infections: C. diff and MRSA. (Aleccia, 7/28)

Univita Health, which gained control of the entire Florida Medicaid home-care market a year ago, has suddenly lost all of its HMO contracts. The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration made the announcement in an e-mail blast late Tuesday afternoon. AHCA offered no explanation. Univita, based in Miramar, stopped processing requests for home health-care services, durable medical equipment such as wheelchairs, and intravenous therapy “effective immediately,” AHCA said. (Gentry, 7/28)

New managed care contracts that promise big savings for the government also will deliver a big blow to UCare, the Minneapolis-based insurer that’s currently the largest HMO in the state’s public health insurance programs. (Snowbeck, 7/28)

Thousands of Kansans soon will be receiving letters notifying them that their electronic health records may have been compromised. The letters are from a Fort Wayne, Ind., company that provides an online patient portal called NoMoreClipboard used by 18 Kansas hospitals and at least half a dozen clinics. Most are small-town hospitals in western and southeastern Kansas. The largest is in Hutchinson. (Thompson, 7/28)

A Kansas abortion opponent must stand trial over a letter she sent to a Wichita doctor saying someone might place an explosive under the doctor’s car, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned late Tuesday a lower court’s summary decision that anti-abortion activist Angel Dillard’s letter was constitutionally protected speech. (Hegeman, 7/29)

As the leader of a hospital in one of Chicago's most impoverished neighborhoods, Edward Novak often championed himself as a down-to-earth businessman who brought access to health care to those otherwise ignored. But federal prosecutors say Novak, the fabulously wealthy owner and CEO of Sacred Heart Hospital, in reality had a very different view of the residents of the Garfield Park area he supposedly served. (Meisner, 7/29)

New York state health officials plan to announce this week the companies selected to operate medical marijuana dispensaries. A spokesperson for the state Department of Health says Tuesday that the agency intends to identify the winning applicants for five available dispensary licenses by Friday. (7/28)

A children’s psychiatric facility in Kansas City, Kan., has agreed to set aside 12 inpatient beds for adults who have been referred to Osawatomie State Hospital but haven’t been admitted due to overcrowding there. “This will definitely help with the situation at Osawatomie,” said Kyle Kessler, executive director with the Association of Community Mental Health Centers of Kansas. (Ranney, 7/28)

State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance is asking the Florida Supreme Court to take up a dispute about whether a Jacksonville hospital needs to turn over information about contracts with health insurers. A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal last month ruled in favor of Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, which now is known as UF Health Jacksonville, in the dispute stemming from personal-injury protection auto-insurance claims. (7/28)

Dermatologists who treat skin cancer patients urged [Massachusetts] lawmakers on Tuesday to approve a bill that would bar anyone under age 18 from using tanning beds, but salon owners accused critics of overstating the risks. Current Massachusetts law allows 14- to 17-year-olds to visit tanning salons with written consent from a parent or legal guardian. Children under 14 can only use a tanning bed if accompanied by a parent or guardian. (Salsberg, 7/28)