Pledging to "restore relations with the American labor movement," Mary Kay Henry was named president of the Service Employees International Union, becoming the first woman to head the massive and politically influential group. Despite Henry's promise to reach out and heal rifts with other labor unions, interviews indicated that California's hospitals and nursing homes would remain one of organized labor's most contentious battlegrounds, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The cost of treating cancer has doubled over the past 20 years, but those costs are in line with overall trends in health spending. And while more people are getting cancer as the U.S. population ages, treatment has shifted away from hospitals to outpatient settings, according to a study. As cancer treatment has moved out of hospitals and into clinics or doctors' offices, the share of cancer costs for inpatient care fell from 64.4% of total cancer costs in 1987 to 27.5% a year during 2001-2005, the study found.
The Service Employees International Union announced it was filing an emergency lawsuit to stop Miami-based Jackson Health System from firing more than 170 nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals because it would greatly damage Jackson's ability to provide quality care. With about 400 Jackson Health System workers scheduled to have their last workday on May 6, the lawsuit alleges that some proposed layoffs will cause the governing body, the Public Health Trust, to violate its own bylaws requiring "one standard of patient care."
Some doctors from St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan fear they won't be covered for malpractice insurance for care they provided while on staff before the hospital's demise. They believe the failed institution has a legal obligation to continue to provide the coverage. The doctors fear they may have to buy their own medical malpractice coverage for the next several years, policies they say can cost $40,000 a year, the Wall Street Journal reports.
A compromise Minnesota health plan for the very poor was rescued when Gov. Tim Pawlenty's administration changed course and negotiated with participating hospitals to limit the number of patients each will see. As a result, Hennepin County Medical Center and three other hospitals will participate in a slimmed-down version of General Assistance Medical Care, a health plan for thousands of Minnesota's poorest and sickest residents. The four hospitals serve about 47% of the current 36,426 enrollees, none outstate. The remaining 144 Minnesota hospitals will treat patients and dip into a $20 million fund for that purpose, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
The private-equity firm proposing to purchase Boston's six Catholic hospitals intends to maintain the hospitals' religious identity, but has also negotiated an escape clause that would allow the firm to end the religious affiliation in exchange for a $25 million donation to charity. The agreement between the private equity firm, Cerberus Capital Management, and the Archdiocese of Boston was announced by Attorney General Martha Coakley. The archdiocese could also terminate the agreement if it concluded that the hospitals were not following Catholic teachings.