Seeking a possible path to approving healthcare legislation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that the House should pass the Senate's version and then use the budget reconciliation process to make the changes some lawmakers are demanding. The strategy might allow Democrats to salvage a version of the overhaul that senior lawmakers pushed through the House and Senate late last year. Because budget reconciliation requires only a simple majority in the Senate, it could enable Democrats to circumvent a threatened GOP filibuster, the Los Angeles Times reports.
An administrator was charged with embezzling $222,000 from Weymouth, MA-based South Shore Hospital, according to the U.S. attorney's office. Officials said William S. Burke stole donations to Dare to Care, a fund-raising program that benefited the hospital's cardiovascular center. Prosecutors say that from 2007 to 2009 he solicited contributions through the mail and diverted them to his bank account. He is also accused of stealing rebate money from medical vendors selling supplies to the hospital and depositing the money in the same account.
With no clear path forward on major healthcare legislation, Democratic leaders in Congress said they no longer felt pressure to move quickly on a health bill after eight months of setting deadlines and missing them, the New York Times reports. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said "There is no rush," and noted that Congress still had most of this year to work on the health bills passed in 2009 by the Senate and the House, the Times reports.
Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers throughout Southern California have voted to quit the giant Service Employees International Union and join a smaller rival union, according to election results. The National Labor Relations Board said that about 2,000 nurses and care professionals voted more than 6 to 1 in favor of ditching the SEIU and affiliating with the rival National Union of Healthcare Workers. The SEIU is engaged in a battle for workers' allegiance with the emergent NUHW, headed by former SEIU leaders ousted a year ago in a takeover, the Los Angeles Times reports.
One of New York City's largest hospital systems has made an offer to take over the financially struggling St. Vincent's Hospital, provoking opposition from elected officials who fear the loss of critical medical services, especially emergency care, for tens of thousands of patients who could be sent elsewhere. The proposal by the hospital system, Continuum Health Partners, to take over St. Vincent's and turn it into an outpatient center would mean the loss of the city's last Catholic general hospital, the New York Times reports. St. Vincent's treats a disproportionate number of poor, homeless, and uninsured patients.
The Mayo Clinic's first clinic abroad, in the UAE's emirate of Dubai, is closing its doors in Dubai Healthcare City. The HealthCare City, a $5.3 billion healthcare free zone, is facing delays as the emirate struggles financially. With too few patients for its one cardiologist in Dubai and barely able to break even, the Mayo Clinic is closing its medical practice there. Instead, the clinic will revert back to a regional office that attracts local patients to its Minnesota hospital, the Wall Street Journal reports.