State news: Ill. requires 3D mammography coverage, Mont. health workers fired for giving data to lawmakers

Here’s a roundup of state healthcare news, including complaints over slow payments in Iowa’s privately managed Medicaid program and California overhauling its cancer database.

Illinois law requires insurers to include 3D mammography in coverage

Insurers in Illinois, along with Medicaid, will have to include 3D mammography in a patient’s coverage under legislation signed into law July 20.

“Early detection of breast cancer is key to survival and this new law offers women more options for detecting breast cancer," said Illinois Department of Public Health Director Nirav Shah, MD. "We encourage women to talk with their health care provider about 3D mammography to determine what would be best for them."

The bill was signed at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois, which was among the first to offer breast tomosynthesis in the Midwest beginning in 2011.

The law doesn’t mandate how much of the procedure’s cost insurers must cover.

Mont. health workers fired after giving data to state legislators

Two employees at the Montana Department of Public Health were fired after it was discovered they had turned over the personal information of hundreds of childcare providers, including Social Security numbers, to state lawmakers.

The workers had been fired last fall, but the Associated Press only confirmed their terminations after obtaining letters sent by the agency’s director, Richard Opper, to the three legislators involved. Opper asked all three to destroy the documents with the personal information and detail what they received and who else they may have shared it with. State Sen. Bob Keenan said he ignored those requests.

“He has no authority over me. He’s not director of the state Senate. So I just blew it off,” Keenan said to the AP.

One of the fired employees is contesting his termination, arguing the legislators requested the information, which one of the lawmakers’ attorneys denied.

Iowa providers say state’s privately-managed Medicaid too slow to pay

Healthcare providers in Iowa claim they’re being forced to go into debt because of questionable rejections or delayed payments of claims submitted to the state’s privately managed Medicaid program.

“We’re getting denials that we have no idea what they mean,” Tami Lichtenberg, executive director of Iowa River Hospice, said to the Des Moines Register, adding that she had to open up a line of credit to cover the $50,000 shortfall caused by the problem.

The Iowa Department of Human Services said managed care companies have been processing “clean claims” in an average of under 9 days, but couldn’t say how many claims had been denied.

Calif. testing out ‘real-time’ cancer diagnosis database

A dozen hospitals will be reporting cancer diagnoses in near real time to the California Cancer Registry as part of a new pilot program.

STAT News reported the registry, which dates back to 1988 with data of more than 4.5 million cancer patients, usually relies on information which is at least two years old. By providing current information, oncologists could use the database to see which newer treatments are more effective, with the eventual goal of using it to steer patients into clinical trials.

“Our driving force is making sure we can get the patient to the right treatment, the right trials as quickly as possible,” said Michelle Woodley, chief nursing information officer at St. Joseph Health System.

STAT News said the real-time reporting could be adapted to make transfer of patient data between physicians easier, but right now, the database doesn’t include patients’ identities.