Business Blog

The White House is encouraging skeptical state officials to expand Medicaid by subsidizing the purchase of private insurance for low-income people, even though that approach might be somewhat more expensive, federal and state officials say. Ohio and Arkansas are negotiating with the Obama administration over plans to use federal Medicaid money to pay premiums for [...]

One of the country’s largest pharmacy chains is asking its workers to find out how fat they are and then disclose it to their insurance provider. Not only is that company, CVS Caremark, telling workers who use its health insurance plan to have a doctor determine their height, weight, body fat, blood pressure and other [...]

The healthiest Mississippians live in Desoto County and the least healthiest in the Delta’s Quitman County. Those are among the conclusions in the fourth annual County Health Rankings released Wednesday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. The County Health Rankings rank the overall health of nearly every [...]

Three weeks ago, when Arkansas Gov. Mike Beebe was in Washington for the National Governors Association meeting, he made a trip to Health and Human Services. Beebe had an unusual Obamacare proposal. The Arkansas legislature did not want to expand Medicaid for those under 133 percent of the federal poverty line, an option under the [...]

  U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York wants to command the high seas with a “Cruise Ship Bill of Rights” that would force the cruise ship industry to adopt a plan that would “guarantee sanitary conditions, backup power and medical staff in case of emergencies. Schumer’s plan was revealed after at least three incidents [...]

In an operation that saved a Jackson mother whose condition verged on death, a team at the University of Mississippi Medical Center earlier this month successfully completed the state’s first liver transplant in 22 years. Karen Battle received her new liver on March 4 and returned to her south Jackson home Thursday, said Dr. Christopher [...]

The Mississippi Legislature is set to adjourn April 7 with no deal in sight on a federal offer to expand Medicaid. The ticking clock has executives of hospitals around the state worried that time will expire and hospitals and the entire health care sector will suffer the consequences, putting about 9,000 jobs at risk. Ahead [...]

Time for Plan B! Wait, there is no Plan B? As expected, the Senate rejected rival bills aimed at preventing the looming sequester Thursday, meaning that $85 billion in automatic spending cuts will almost definitely kick in on Friday. Bills introduced by both Democrats and Republicans failed to receive the necessary 60 votes to pass. [...]

The late humorist Lewis Grizzard had a standard refrain for Northerners who complained about life in his beloved Atlanta: “Delta is ready when you are.” For a little variation, he would sometimes remind them that “Interstate-75 goes both ways.” It’s perhaps well and good that the longtime Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist is not around to hear [...]

Here is the White House says the across-the-board automatic budget cuts set to begin Friday under the fiscal sequester deal between Congress and the Obama Administration will mean for Mississippi. The cuts threaten hundreds of thousands of middle class jobs, and cut vital services for children, seniors, people with mental illness and our men and [...]