medicaid programs

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius sent a letter to governors outlining the flexibility and support available to states that are examining how to make Medicaid programs more efficient while meeting pressing health care challenges in the face of difficult budget circumstances.

Most Medicaid programs in the U.S. offer at least some form of health care coverage to enrollees who are trying to quit smoking, but in many states more could be done to help people kick the habit, the CDC says.

Patients in 84% of the nation's Medicaid programs have access to tobacco-dependence treatment, but the availability and extent of coverage varied significantly, researchers found.

In today's Philadelphia Inquirer in a story entitled "FDA: Pfizer ignored warnings, gets record fine" we learn that:

The [$2.3 billion] fine, which had been expected, was the largest ever paid by a drug company for defrauding the government's Medicare and Medicaid programs.

The U.S.

Justice Department said that it included the largest criminal fine in U.S. history - $1.2 billion.

The Obama administration today is announcing it would expand Justice Department health-care strike forces to Detroit and Houston, part of a broader commitment to root out fraud in Medicare and Medicaid programs.