Business Blog

Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee has rejected expansion of Medicaid in his state over impatience with the Obama administration’s for approval of his proposal to let the state use the money to buy private insurance for the working poor who wold otherwise be covered by Medicaid expansion. In turning down Medicaid expansion, Haslam called for [...]

Customers of Mississippi restaurants will now know whether the catfish on their table is domestically produced or is an imported variety of catfish-like pangasius, also sold as basa, tra and swai. Mississippi producers persuaded legislators this month to amend the state’s catfish Country of Origin Labeling law to require restaurants to also identify the origin [...]

A $1 million gift commitment from Joe and Kathy Sanderson of Laurel has pushed the University of Southern Mississippi Foundation’s College of Nursing Building Campaign over the $5 million mark and closer to its $8 million goal. With the donation, the clinical simulation lab will be named for the Sandersons. The Sanderson Clinical Simulation Lab [...]

Last week’s headlines about the quality of management and care at Jackson’s G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery VA Medical Center were not a surprise to those of us who have sought reform for the past two years. In fact, national attention – heralded by a comprehensive article in the New York Times – was long overdue. Under [...]

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 [...]