HealthLeadersMedia.com - Community Hospitals News

Q&A: Rural Health Practitioner of the Year, Larry Rhodes, MD

Wed, 22 May 2013 15:06:00 GMT

West Virginia pediatric cardiologist Larry Rhodes, MD, speaks passionately about his work at three community outreach clinics. "It is always easy to hide under the guise of 'this is for patient care,' but the best days of the month for me are when I am in my truck driving to one of these clinics."

Uncompensated Care Faces a Double Hit in Some States

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:27:00 GMT

Hospitals in states that opt not to expand Medicaid are at a severe disadvantage to their counterparts in other states, not only because they will miss out on additional Medicaid-based reimbursement, but also because they will face the same cuts in disproportionate share funding as everyone else.

House Lawmakers Grill CMS Over Health Exchange Navigators

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:11:00 GMT

The role of navigators, expected to help millions of uninsured make their way through the health insurance market, came under fire Tuesday by members of Congress who raised questions about oversight and the role of the IRS in the implementation of healthcare reform.

Henry Ford, Beaumont $6.6-billion mega merger is called off

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:14:00 GMT

After six months of planning and one delay, Henry Ford and Beaumont health systems called off their planned $6.6-billion mega merger today that would have created one of the largest hospital systems in Michigan. In a letter to employees, Henry Ford CEO Nancy Schlichting said her hospital system's 20-member Board of Trustees voted late this afternoon to allow the deal's letter of intent to expire at the end of this week. "This decision was made because it became apparent that two very different perspectives had emerged for the new organization between Henry Ford and Beaumont," Schlichting's letter says.

Tornado struck hospital but patients, staff unharmed

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:12:00 GMT

Hospital emergency department manager Nick Stremble didn't need the television to tell him the tornado would hit Moore Medical Center. All he had to do was look outside the window. "There's a big window area that faces southwest," Stremble said, recalling his final check before heading to the safe area on the first floor of the hospital in Moore, Okla., about 10 miles from Oklahoma City. "I could see the tornado in the neighborhood across the street from us. I could see the debris. It was more than obvious it was going to be there in under a minute."

Hospital 'code black' before flood of tornado patients

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:08:00 GMT

The injured children came into the Children's Hospital at the Oklahoma University Medical Center in Oklahoma City fast. So fast that the hospital set up a triage center in its own facility. "Every once in a while, a trauma trickles into the emergency room at OU Children's," said Bob Letton, pediatric trauma medical director at the hospital. But not Monday. In the wake of a powerful tornado that ripped through the area, he said, "a facility used to seeing one or two traumas a day all of a sudden had over 50."

Loophole in healthcare law could stick doctors with tab

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:05:00 GMT

A loophole in California's upcoming health care overhaul could be exploited by families gaming the system or responding to hardship in a way that doctors say could leave a pile of unpaid bills. A chain of events would create a two-month period during which a family has medical coverage but no insurer must pay its claims. Nonpayment of premiums for subsidized policies would trigger the oddity: Federal law provides a three-month grace period before cancellation - but insurers are responsible only for the first month.

End of health price secrecy may be starting in Miami

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:02:00 GMT

When Medicare released thousands of health-care prices this month, one of the biggest criticisms was that these figures didn't represent what patients actually paid. Medicare, for example, pays hospitals on a set fee schedule, regardless of their prices. Health insurance plans typically negotiate a lower rate with a hospital than the sticker price that showed up in the new data. Those prices still remain secret — but that may change. Spurred by the release of the Medicare data, the chief executive of Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Miami has now pledged to release those negotiated rates that tend to be kept secret. Via MedCity News:

WI hospitals reduce central-line infections

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:53:00 GMT

Painstaking work by Wisconsin hospitals in recent years has sharply lowered the occurrence of one of the most deadly types of infections: those from central lines used to deliver fluids, medication and blood to patients. Infections in intensive care units from central lines — tubes placed in a large vein in a patient's neck, chest or arm — were 56% lower last year than a national baseline established in 2008, according to a report by the Wisconsin Division of Public Health. That progress — which included a 21% reduction from 2011 — has stemmed from a series of initiatives since 2009 by the Wisconsin Hospital Association, as well as from projects by individual hospitals.

18 CT hospital execs' paychecks top $1M

Wed, 22 May 2013 10:49:00 GMT

Eighteen Connecticut hospital executives received pay packages over $1 million last fiscal year, as many of the state's acute care providers saw their financial performance improve from a year earlier, a new report says. The state's two largest hospitals—Hartford Hospital and Yale New Haven Hospital—each had four senior executives that received million-dollar plus pay packages last fiscal year, while Stamford Hospital had two administrators earn over $1 million, according to a new report from the state's Office of Health Care Access, which regulates hospitals. The OHCA report did not name individual administrators, but it did list the top 10 paid positions at the state's 30 acute care hospitals.

ED Physicians Key to Half of Hospital Admissions

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:21:00 GMT

Doctors in the emergency department are the major decision makers in nearly half of all hospital admissions, giving them a significant role in controlling healthcare costs, research shows.

How Chargemaster Data May Affect Hospital Revenue

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:05:00 GMT

The now transparent federal database of hospital prices could motivate hospital financial assistance offices to write more flexible policies for collecting from uninsured, underinsured, and Medicare Advantage patients.

A hospital CEO promises more pricing transparency—and makes rivals squirm

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:19:00 GMT

Steven Sonenreich, chief executive of Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, isn't afraid of controversy. As the Miami Herald reported, this month he announced on a radio talk show that the hospital will start publishing what it charges insurers for procedures. "We will post our prices relative to Blue Cross, and Aetna, our contractual prices," said Sonenreich, during an appearance on WLRN 91.3-FM. He challenged other hospitals to do the same. A hospital competing on price? That's virtually unheard of. And the impact is likely to be felt nationally. The South Florida hospital chief is shining a bright light on the fee-for-service system that's largely responsible for inflating health-care costs in the U.S.

MN healthcare program cuts costs for the poor

Tue, 21 May 2013 11:02:00 GMT

Ezekiel Allen's weary voice and his long list of medical challenges — schizophrenia, a back injury, bipolar condition, high blood pressure, brain polyps, dental troubles, migraine headaches — make him sound far older than his 45 years. Homeless for a number of years, Allen didn't see a doctor regularly for far too long. When the pain of his conditions became overwhelming, the Minneapolis man would get medical care from one of the costliest venues — an emergency room. But now that he's enrolled in Hennepin Health — a pioneering new Hennepin County and state Department of Human Services demonstration project — Allen relies on less-expensive clinic settings for his care.

WA hospitals fight to limit reports on infections

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:55:00 GMT

Consumers Union and the Washington State Hospital Association are still tangling over legislation approved unanimously by the Legislature to require more reporting by hospitals when patients develop infections during care. The state Department of Health is taking the hospitals' side, opposing requirements to do separate reports for every knee, hip or cardiac surgery. Otherwise, the parties agree on the bill, which is broadly meant to bring the state's reporting requirements into alignment with the demands of President Barack Obama's health care law. House Bill 1471 passed the House and Senate unanimously in the way Consumers Union prefers.

Here's why hospitals set high prices

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:49:00 GMT

"The most expensive hospital in America is not set amid the swaying palm trees of Beverly Hills or the luxury townhouses of New York's Upper East Side," Julie Creswell, Barry Meier and Jo Craven McGinty wrote last week in the New York Times. "It is in a faded blue-collar town 11 miles from Midtown Manhattan." Bayonne Hopsital Center in Northern New Jersey tends to charge higher prices than any other hospital in the country, according to the new data trove that Medicare made public earlier this month. For example, while the average hospital charges $23,518 to treat congestive heart failure, Bayonne charges $121,080.

L.A. poised to go after Las Vegas hospital in patient-dumping cases

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:45:00 GMT

Multiple agencies, including the Los Angeles city attorney's office, are investigating whether Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada's primary public mental health facility, has been systematically dumping patients across state lines for years. A Bee investigation found that the hospital had bused roughly 1,500 psychiatric patients to cities across the nation over the past five years, a third of them to California. By policy, those patients were put on buses alone, with one-way tickets out of town, a small supply of medication and several bottles of Ensure nutritional supplement for the journey.

Owners of for-profit North Jersey hospitals cash in on land beneath

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:55:00 GMT

Three years after Bayonne Medical Center's new for-profit owners bought the hospital at bankruptcy for the equivalent of $32 million, they sold its land and buildings for $58 million. Then they leased it back and continued to run the hospital — enhancing their profits through some of the highest hospital charges in the country, according to recent Medicare disclosures. It was the first example of a trend that has emerged as for-profit companies acquire more New Jersey hospitals. Already, hospital properties in Secaucus, Hoboken and Bayonne are owned by real estate investors, with more deals possible in Passaic and elsewhere.

Primary Care Docs Average More Hospital Revenue Than Specialists

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:52:00 GMT

A survey of hospital CFOs shows primary care physicians generated a combined average of $1,566,165 for their affiliated hospitals in the last year. Other specialties generated a combined annual average of $1,424,917, the lowest average in five years, data shows.

Surgeons-in-training dislike new work hours

Mon, 20 May 2013 11:05:00 GMT

Most surgeons-in-training dislike new rules that limit how many hours they can work, according to a new study that also found the majority said they skirt the restrictions. Researchers surveyed 1,013 surgical residents - who train for years alongside more senior surgeons - and found that about two of every three said they disapproved of the 2011 regulations, which aimed to improve patient care as well as the residents' education and quality of life. "I don't think anybody wants to work 120 hours a week, but I don't think we really want medicine to necessarily have bankers' hours," said Dr. Brian Drolet, the study's lead author and a fourth-year surgical resident at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence.