A special panel in charge of finding a company to take over Prince George's County's (MD) ailing healthcare system has been unable to complete a sale of the system after a two-year search, according to sources familiar with the deliberations. The panel chairman, Ken Glover, said in an interview with the Washington Post that he is optimistic that county and state officials would move quickly on a plan. "There are several interested parties who have submitted their credentials to go forward in the process of transferring the assets," he said.
More than 10 years after San Francisco voters agreed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to rebuild the aging Laguna Honda Hospital, the new facility is on the cusp of completion. When it opens its doors at the end of summer for 780 patients who need skilled nursing and rehabilitation care, the new Laguna Honda will have cost $585 million—$296 million from voter-approved bonds, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
A federal judge has ruled Medicare acted properly in 2007 when it revoked the billing rights of a Boston dermatologist who has helped hundreds of patients with rare skin diseases, but also pleaded guilty to backdating letters and falsifying medical tests in what he said was an effort to get insurance coverage for patients. The decision means the federal government will not reinstate A. Razzaque Ahmed's, MD's billing privileges. Ahmed, who runs a private practice, is a leading specialist on pemphigus and pemphigoid, blistering disorders that cause painful scalp sores, crumbling mouth tissue, and eyelids to fuse to eyeballs.
When Miami-Dade County (FL) commissioners gather May 18, commissioners are to consider a measure that gives them the power, if one of several triggers is met, to cast aside the 17-member Trust and replace it with a seven-person Financial Recovery Board to oversee operations of Jackson Health System in conjunction with the county, the Miami Herald reports. For more than 30 years the dual system of the Trust and County Commission has overseen Miami-Dade's public health system. Yet since March, amid Jackson's ongoing financial crisis, commissioners have debated in a series of meetings whether the oversight system should be altered if Jackson's fiscal woes deepen, reports the Herald.
Residents of Provo, UT, many of them Mormons who don't smoke or drink, are among the healthiest in the country. The city's biggest hospital is run by Intermountain Healthcare, which President Obama has lauded for providing high-quality care while restraining costs. Until recently, Provo seemed to be a model for the nation. But spending on Medicare patients here has accelerated rapidly, as it has in many other areas of the country that are known for cost-efficient care. This is due to a swift increase in the number of procedures and tests being performed, a trend that has coincided with the additions of new surgical and cancer treatment suites and diagnostic machines at hospitals and clinics throughout the growing region.
The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation has named Peter Goodwin as its COO/treasurer. He will take over from the current COO/Treasurer Marc A. Nivet, who will step down on June 1 to become the Chief Diversity Officer for the Association of American Medical Colleges. Goodwin most recently was vice president of National Program Affairs for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Goodwin has worked for 30 years as a professional in the non-profit sector, including his earlier position as hospital administrator for the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.