NYU researcher is new health commissioner
The New York State Senate confirmed Gov. Andrew Cuomo”™s selection of Dr. Nirav Shah as commissioner of the state Department of Health.
Shah, 38, has been an assistant professor at New York University Langone Medical Center and School of Medicine and an internist at Bellevue Hospital Center.
According to NYU, Shah is an expert in the use of systems-based methods to improve patient outcome, in the use of large scale clinical labs and electronic health records to improve the effectiveness of care, and in the methods needed to create lower-cost, more patient-centered health care.
Disabilities services group settles Medicaid charges
Young Adult Institute Inc. reached an $18 million settlement with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, resolving allegations that the organization defrauded the state Medicaid program.
YAI provides services for people with disabilities and their families, and is the state”™s largest residential service provider. The New York City-based organization maintains a day services program in Tarrytown and a residence in Pleasantville, while also providing services in Rockland and Orange counties.
Schneiderman”™s office said that in at least 1999, YAI artificially inflated the expenses on its annual consolidated fiscal reports to the state in order to extract more money from the state Medicaid program.
State trails on children”™s health
New York trails most of its Northeast neighbors for its record on children”™s health, according to a new study, though it topped New Jersey.
Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont led all states on the Commonwealth Fund report, with Connecticut ninth, New York 21st and New Jersey 29th. The study examined health care access and affordability, prevention and treatment, and a third category that examines health factors such as child obesity and teen smoking.
New York led the nation under a category assessing states”™ records on ensuring preventative care for children; the state ranked last nationally for the percentage of children with asthma-related problems.
AMA points to insufficient insurance competition
One or two health insurance carriers dominate the vast majority of metropolitan markets in the U.S., according to an ongoing study by the American Medical Association.
In 48 percent of metropolitan statistical areas, at least one insurer had a market share of 50 percent or more.
“The market power of health insurers places physicians and patients at a significant disadvantage,” said Dr. Cecil Wilson, president of AMA, in a prepared statement. “When insurers dominate a market, people pay higher health insurance premiums than they should, and physicians are pressured to accept unfair contract terms and corporate policies, which undermines the physician role as patient advocate.”
