Banner Health's revenue increased year over year in the first six months of 2020, but ended the period with a net loss.
Like most other health systems, Banner faced serious volume losses this spring that started to recover in May as stay-at-home...Arizona News
On August 6, a report from from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children's Hospital Association showed that Arizona led the nation in COVID-19 infections in children.
Arizona's rate of cases in children and young adults ages 19 and younger is 1,206.4 per 100,000. Most cases of COVID-19 in children are less severe than...Arizona News
The Department of Child Safety is in the process of reducing barriers to behavioral health services for kids in foster care, as well as delivering an integrated model with its recent contract award to Mercy Care.
Arizona will be the first state in the nation to integrate behavioral health and physical health service delivery in a...Arizona News
Cigna is charged with falsifying the health conditions of its Medicare Advantage plan members, essentially scamming CMS out of larger payments to cover the cost of care for beneficiaries diagnosed through the insurer's medical assessment program.
Last year the Office of Inspector General undertook a study because it suspected...
Local school districts will be guided to reopen by the number of coronavirus cases in their county per capita, the percent of positive cases from testing and the percentage of people hospitalized with COVID-19.
Community spread in each Arizona county will be broken down into "minimal, moderate or substantial" categories.
AZDHS...
Nursing homes, hospices, and inpatient psych facilities are getting some long overdue attention and can expect to see pay bumps come Oct. 1, albeit slightly less than previously proposed by CMS.
The final rule finalizes a 2.2% increase in overall payments to skilled nursing facilities in fiscal 2021. CMS says this means payments...Arizona News
The only fully comprehensive heart failure treatment center in Arizona now operates out of Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix.
Banner University Medical Center Phoenix (BUMCP) was approved to perform heart transplants at the end of 2019 by the United Network for Organ Sharing (a private, nonprofit organization that manages...Arizona News
A few weeks ago, Arizona was leading the nation in coronavirus infections per capita, as the virus spread across many Sun Belt states that had opened quickly in late spring. In response to a request from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state of Arizona, the Tucson and Phoenix Veteran Affairs Healthcare Systems are taking...Arizona News
The COVID-19 pandemic has put extreme importance on affordable, accessible healthcare.
Kaiser Family Foundation’s analysis of CMS’ early data on Medicaid finds enrollment grew by 1.2 million, or 1.7%, since December, which includes 800,000 from March. The trends likely reflect the downturn in the economy in addition to the Family...Arizona News
Gov. Doug Ducey is expected to make a decision on schools reopening by the end of July, as concern grows over how children will be kept safe if they return back to school in the fall during the pandemic.
Eighty-seven doctors signed a letter to Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey urging him to keep schools shut for at least the first quarter of...CMS Rules
A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services watchdog reported that Seema Verma, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief, mishandled millions of dollars in federal contracts that ultimately benefited friends and former Trump officials.
The Office of Inspector General Report concluded Verma violated federal contracting...Arizona News
This funding is part of UnitedHealthcare’s $12.3 million in Empowering Health grants concerned with expanding access to care and addressing the social determinants of health for people in underprivileged communities and uninsured individuals.
Three community-based organizations in Arizona are receiving $105,000, which...Arizona News
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people unemployed has skyrocketed to more than 40 million, with April 2020 having the greatest net change in unemployment in the past decade. This has led to a significant increase in people eligible for Medicaid.
Arizona's Medicaid population has recently grown to 2 million and...Arizona News
Phoenix mayor Kate Gallego said Arizona opened too soon, fueling a boom in new cases among young people. This week, one in four COVID-19 tests returned positive in Arizona - or 25% - the highest in the nation.
According to the Arizona Department of Health Services, as of June 8, there are 108,614 reported cases of COVID-19 in the...Arizona News
The volume of telehealth claim lines increased more than 8,335% in April 2020 compared to April 2019 as the pandemic continues to drive utilization.
Mental health diagnoses drove visits, followed by joint and soft tissue conditions and hypertension, suggesting more privately insured patients turned to telehealth to manage chronic...Arizona News
Crisis Response Network announced last week that the new Resilient Arizona Crisis Counseling Program will provide entirely free and confidential support and connections to resources for Arizona residents impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The partnership between the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) and the...Arizona News
Remdesivir is one of the first widely used drugs for COVID-19. It received an emergency use authorization from U.S. regulators in May after a big trial found the medicine sped recovery by about four days in hospitalized patients.
The Department of Health and Human Services announced an agreement to secure large supplies of the...CMS Rules
Those who are older, lower income, minorities and have chronic conditions are at higher risk for COVID-19.
On June 22, CMS released sought-after Medicare data (Jan 1 to May 16) on beneficiaries’ COVID-19 outcomes that found that more than 325,000 beneficiaries were diagnosed with COVID-19 during that time.
Almost 110,000 were...Arizona News
Last week Arizona hit a new high when for the first time, more than 3,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported in one day.
On June 19 the American Hospital Association (AHA) called on The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to extend the public health emergency declaration set to expire on July 25 until testing capacity...Arizona News
Monogram Health and Banner—University Health Plans, a division of Banner Health, announced an agreement designed to improve the coordination of vital care for B – UHP members living with chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease.
Banner University Health Plans released this statement,
We’re excited to partner with...
