Oklahoma Watch (http://oklahomawatch.org/category/publichealth/)
The state will have to find another way to help fund graduate medical education by July 2019 if it wants to use Medicaid matching funds. The federal government on Tuesday denied the Oklahoma Health Care Authority’s latest bid to fix the program’s funding issues.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health is looking for a new interim commissioner after Preston Doerflinger abruptly resigned Tuesday.
Inmates in Oklahoma prisons must have advanced liver disease before becoming eligible for treatment that cures hepatitis C, a potentially deadly and growing disease. Since July 1, only five inmates have been given the drug treatment.
The chief financial officer of the state Health Department, who helped bring the agency’s accounting irregularities to light, abruptly resigned Thursday, citing conflicts of interest and a disagreement with the interim health commissioner.
With another budget shortfall looming, lawmakers are eyeing the $1.1 billion Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust, raising questions about constitutional limitations and the effectiveness of the agency’s public health education campaigns.
The Oklahoma State Department of Health and Gov. Mary Fallin set out to reshape strategies for markedly improving Oklahomans’ health. There was just one problem: The money to pay for them started to run out.
News about the financial crisis at the Oklahoma State Department of Health has focused lately on accounting schemes and questions of oversight. Getting less attention is what the debacle could mean for public health.
Documents released Friday by the Oklahoma State Department of Health detail a number of alleged deceptions, including fraudulent budget reports to finance officials and omissions in reporting the agency’s financial position to the Legislature and the State Board of Health.
Oklahoma’s two medical schools could lose $115 million a year because the state spent Medicaid dollars on training doctors for well over a decade apparently without approval.
The cash crisis at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, which was years in the making, raises questions about which agencies and state officials could have caught the agency’s reported financial mismanagement.
Hours after a grand jury met to look into allegations of financial mismanagement at the Oklahoma State Department of Health, lawmakers sent subpoenas to three of the state’s top budget officials. Meanwhile, the exodus of leadership at the Health Department continues in the wake of the agency’s sudden cash crunch.
