What We're Reading: CDC Director Salary to Fall; Maine Gets Sued Over Medicaid; Prisons and Telemedicine

Pay of New CDC Director Gets Cut From $375,000

Maine Medicaid Expansion Backers Sue State for Lack of Implementation

Prisons Endorse Telemedicine for Prisoners

The pay of the new CDC director, Robert R. Redfield, MD, will be cut from $375,000, after reports that he was being paid considerably more than previous directors, HHS confirmed, though it declined to say what his new pay will be, The New York Times reported. Redfield was paid more than his predecessors as well as his boss, HHS Secretary Alex Azar; Scott Gottlieb, MD, head of the FDA; and chief of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins, MD.Supporters of Maine’s Medicaid expansion law are suing the state to force it to begin implementing the program approved by voters in November, The Hill reported. Lawyers for Maine Equal Justice Partners said Republican Governor Paul LePage’s administration missed an April 3 deadline to file a federal application to expand Medicaid. They’re also filing a motion to expedite the request. Nearly 60% of state voters approved the measure, which is expected to provide health insurance coverage to an estimated 80,000 people. LePage vetoed the measure 5 times while in office. Prisons are embracing telemedicine, Kaiser Health News reported. They’re using video conferencing to allow inmates to see specialists without ever leaving the facilities. One example is Rikers Island, which houses 9 jails on an island in New York City. It recently began to provide telehealth services for female inmates who need oncology, rheumatology, and hematology services. A recently published CDC survey of prison health care found that 30 states out of 45 that responded said they used telemedicine for at least 1 type of specialty or diagnostic service, with the most common being psychiatry and cardiology.