Articles by Christopher Weaver

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  Craving More Growth, Walgreens Dismissed Its Theranos Doubts

  May 25, 2016 04:14 p.m.

  The drugstore chain made a blood-testing deal without fully validating the startup’s technology, worrying that Elizabeth Holmes might balk if Walgreens pushed too hard.

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  Florida Cardiologist in Medicare Case Files for Bankruptcy

  April 21, 2016 06:20 p.m.

  Florida cardiologist Asad Qamar, who was among the highest-billing doctors in the Medicare program and the target of a civil lawsuit by the Justice Department last year, filed for bankruptcy protection, court records show.

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  Theranos Is Subject of Criminal Probe by U.S.

  April 18, 2016 06:37 p.m.

  Federal prosecutors are investigating whether the blood-testing company misled investors about the state of its technology and operations.

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  U.S. Proposes Banning Theranos Founder

  April 13, 2016 02:07 p.m.

  Theranos hopes to avoid sanctions, but CEO Elizabeth Holmes and No. 2 executive at the startup could be forced out of the blood-testing industry for at least two years for failing to fix problems.

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  Theranos Devices Often Failed Firm’s Accuracy Checks

  March 31, 2016 07:06 p.m.

  A government report details deficiencies found with Theranos’s Edison blood-testing machines.

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  Theranos Ran Tests Despite Quality Problems

  March 8, 2016 06:53 a.m.

  A federal inspection report said a Theranos laboratory ran an important blood test on 81 patients in a six-month period despite erratic results from quality-control checks meant to ensure the test’s accuracy.

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  Lengthy Hospice Care Boosts Medicare Bills

  February 18, 2016 08:59 p.m.

  Medicare spending on hospice care roughly doubled between 2005 and 2013, partly because such care is being drawn out longer with dementia patients and others who die slowly. Between 2005 and 2013, about 107,000 patients received hospice care for an average of nearly 1,000 days spread out over four or more calendar years, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of Medicare billing records.

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  Community Health Systems’ Shares Plunge After Weak Earnings

  February 16, 2016 08:51 p.m.

  Community Health Systems’ share price plummeted after a weak earnings report, the latest threat to U.S. hospital investors who have seen big gains of recent years from an improving economy and the 2010 federal health law largely erased in recent months.

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  Walgreens Threatens to End Theranos Agreement

  February 10, 2016 09:08 p.m.

  The blood-testing firm got a 30-day deadline from Walgreens to resolve major infractions that violate the federal law governing clinical laboratories.

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  Walgreens Pulls Back From Theranos

  January 28, 2016 07:53 p.m.

  Theranos’s main retail partner, Walgreens, is suspending some ties to the blood-testing laboratory in the wake of a critical regulatory inspection report.

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  Deficiencies Found at Theranos Lab

  January 24, 2016 08:19 p.m.

  U.S. health inspectors have found serious deficiencies at Theranos’s laboratory in Northern California, and failing to fix them could put the lab at risk of suspension from the Medicare program.

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  Kindred to Pay $125 Million to Settle U.S. Suit

  January 12, 2016 02:50 p.m.

  Kindred Healthcare has agreed to pay $125 million to settle federal allegations it provided unnecessary therapy services to nursing-home patients as part of a scheme to overbill the federal Medicare program.

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  Comparing Costs for Outpatient Care

  December 25, 2015 07:03 p.m.

  Due to an obscure bit of regulatory wording, Medicare patients pay far more out of pocket for outpatient care at the small, rural hospitals known as critical-access hospitals than they would for the same care elsewhere.

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  New Risks at Rural Hospitals

  December 25, 2015 07:01 p.m.

  Financial incentives are leading small rural hospitals to perform more surgeries, posing new risks for patients.

  • Comparing Costs for Outpatient Care
  • What Are Critical-Access Hospitals?

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  What Is Hospital ‘Observation Status’? – The Short Answer

  December 2, 2015 11:40 a.m.

  Patients can stay in hospital beds for days under “observation status” without ever being officially admitted. An observation stay might be indistinguishable from an inpatient admission to patients, but Medicare treats it differently, according to a page-one article in The Wall Street Journal.

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  Medicare Rules Reshape Hospital Admissions

  December 1, 2015 09:45 p.m.

  Medicare penalties have caused hospital readmission rates for many serious conditions to drop, but that is partly because hospitals label more returning patients as outpatients.

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  Medicare Cuts Back Audits of Improper Hospital Payments

  October 30, 2015 05:56 p.m.

  Federal agency is sharply reducing the work of auditors that review hospital claims and seek to recoup improper payments for the government, according to a letter reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

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  Walgreens Scrutinizes Theranos Tests

  October 23, 2015 07:46 p.m.

  Walgreens won’t open new Theranos blood-testing centers while seeking answers about the startup’s technology.

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  Millennium Health Settles Federal Allegations for $256 Million

  October 19, 2015 07:47 p.m.

  Millennium Health agreed to pay $256 million to resolve government allegations that it provided unnecessary urine drug tests to patients covered by Medicare and other federal health-care programs.

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  Medicare Overpays for Intensive Therapy, Watchdog Says

  September 30, 2015 01:13 p.m.

  Medicare could make changes to its nursing-home payment system that save billions of dollars, a government watchdog said in a report.