Mental Health Services

Excerpt: "This district court opinion holds interest for health care providers and benefit fiduciaries alike. As against a motion to dismiss, the district court holds that the plaintiffs have stated a cause of action against the health care provider for balance billing, i.e., billing the balance 'owed' after their health plan paid the PPO discounted rate." (Attorney Roy F Harmon III in the Health Plan Law blog)

13 pages. Excerpt: "Health care providers and members of Congress have raised concerns that consolidation in the private health insurance industry may be resulting in less competitive markets and contributing to rising health insurance rates paid by consumers and employers. However, measuring the extent of changes in market competition over time or the effects of changes is challenging. . . . Despite [the] challenges, researchers have used the data available to study competition in health insurance markets, typically using one of two measures of competition: (1) HMO market concentration or (2) the number of HMOs in a market." (U.S. Government Accountability Office)

Washington - The United States has detected the first case of swine flu in pigs, the Department of Agriculture said Monday. The virus was found in a sample taken from a state fair in Minnesota. More samples were being tested, but the department said ...

Washington - US President Barack Obama's administration relaxed rules Monday on prosecuting marijuana users, saying it would no longer target people who get the drug from state-sanctioned medical suppliers. In a new guidelines that mark a reversal of...

Stuttgart - The agriculture ministry in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg warned on Monday against eating Turkish pears, after tracing dangerously high levels of insecticide. The problem affected Turkish pears across Germany, the Stuttgart- base...