Kenny Colston

A new competition to spur innovation in the healthcare industry is happening soon in Kentucky.

The Bluegrass Code-a-thon offers a $10,000 prize to the person who comes up with the best healthcare innovation in a single day. Organizers say the innovation can be anything, like a new way to share patient information or a unique smart phone application.

The process of opening the Louisville area to Medicaid competition is underway.

Passport Health Plan has run Medicaid in the area for 15 years, but the state has been ordered by the federal government to allow at least one more private operator to do business in the region.

Passport officials say they will bid for the contract and requests were sent to other potential bidders this week.

The CEO of Kentucky’s largest private Medicaid operator says massive financial losses and bad data are to blame for the problems with managed cared in Kentucky.

For weeks, CoventryCares has sought to terminate or revise its contracts with more than a dozen healthcare providers so the company would pay lower reimbursement rates when doctors treat Medicaid patients. And in a meeting before the interim joint Health and Welfare Committee today, CEO Michael Murphy said his company's actions were motivated by losses. 

Kentucky lawmakers will get their first chance tomorrow to ask a private Medicaid operator why it’s having so much trouble negotiating contracts with healthcare providers.

The CEO of CoventryCares will speak to lawmakers at a meeting of the Interim Joint Health and Welfare Committee. Coventry has been fighting with the Eastern Kentucky hospital network Appalachian Regional Healthcare over reimbursement rates and a new contract.  

With no statewide races on the ballot this year, the Kentucky Democratic Party is focusing its efforts on the General Assembly. 

Republicans have made taking over the state House a priority and have pledged to raise one million dollars to do so. But KDP spokesman Matt Erwin says Democrats have already raised near that amount and they plan to do more than protect incumbents. 

A decades-long court fight between a Christian health organization and the Kentucky state government is drawing the ire of some Tea Party activists.

Christian Care MediShare allows people to sign up for accounts and pay into a shared fund, then draw money to pay medical expenses. The state Supreme Court has ruled that MediShare is an insurance company and is not allowed religious exemptions to state law. Despite that, the organization has not changed its operations in the commonwealth.  

The Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky has released a new online directory of community groups that could provide support for patients and their families.

The foundation lists more than 140 organizations in the directory. Combined, they reach all of Kentucky's 120 counties. The groups aren't healthcare providers, but they can give guidance, referrals and emotional support.

The dispute between an Eastern Kentucky hospital chain and private Medicaid operators has lawyers arguing distance versus drive time.

Under state regulations, a private Medicaid operator cannot sign up a patient unless it has a doctor or hospital within 60 miles of that patient's home. But that distance is measured as the crow flies and the state doesn't take into account narrow and winding Appalachian roads. For many patients, it may be faster to visit a doctor that's 70 miles away than it is to visit one that's 50 miles away.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals has overturned a ruling that would've allowed instant racing at horse tracks in Kentucky. 

The national group in charge of getting Republicans elected to Congress is investing $400,000 in Kentucky’s Sixth Congressional District.

The National Republican Congressional Committee has purchased television ad time to support Republican Andy Barr’s second challenge against Congressman Ben Chandler this fall. Barr came within 650 votes of defeating Chandler in 2010.