The state insurance commissioner ruled that Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Georgia cannot bar eligible doctors from joining its insurance network, an action that potentially could provide more healthcare choices for Georgians. Insurance Commissioner John Oxendine's decision addressed a complaint by Northeast Georgia Cancer Care that the insurer had wrongly barred its group of doctors from joining its Health Maintenance Organization network. Oxendine ruled that the "Any Willing Provider" state law prohibited Blue Cross/Blue Shield from rejecting an eligible healthcare provider's application.
Temple University Hospital's interim chief executive officer said that the union representing the Philadelphia hospital's striking nurses and allied professionals summarily rejected a mediator proposal that, if accepted, would have been taken back to management for review. "The mediator offered what I'll call a mediator-proposed settlement to both sides," Sandy Gomberg said. "If PASNAP had agreed to those terms, the Temple negotiating team would have found them acceptable and brought it back to management." The union said there was no mediator-proposed settlement at a meeting between the two sides—simply a Temple management proposal conveyed through the mediator, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Memorial Health has announced a $25 million consolidation and upgrade of its children's hospital and outpatient center. The project includes expansion into the fourth and fifth floors of the Heart and Vascular Building at Memorial University Medical Center, and renovations to the children's center in Backus Children's Hospital Outpatient Center. The new Memorial Children's Hospital is part of a five-year strategic plan designed to keep improving as the region's largest healthcare provider.
A union representing healthcare workers has asked the board of Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to consider whether a trustee, Jay Fialkow, should have disclosed that he helped raise money for the hospital from at least one person with whom he had also done business. Fialkow, a longtime Boston lawyer, is under investigation by regulators for having introduced his clients to Richard Elkinson, a Framingham, MA, man who is facing fraud charges for having allegedly stolen $29 million from investors.
Patients gave their doctor significantly higher marks for satisfaction and thought they had spent more time with him when he sat—rather than stood—by their bedsides, researchers at the University of Kansas Hospital found. In fact, the doctor the researchers studied actually spent slightly less time with patients when he sat with them. And he gave his patients much less time than they realized.
Digital health tool provider Unity Medical reports that two hospital systems are piloting its new Medical Video jLog for the Apple iPad. The Walt Disney Pavilion at Florida Hospital for Children and St. Luke's Health System in Boise, ID, are piloting a new application using interactive video to explain common medical procedures such as CT scans and MRIs to patients.