An increasing number of leading medical centers are encouraging doctors to apologize to patients for mistakes and to explain what went wrong. Doctors say that such accountability can help patients feel more cared for and empowered, as well as enhance the reputation of the doctor and medical center. But apologizing is not popular among drug makers, and CEO's are gun-shy about possible lawsuits by issuing an apology that a court might later construe as an admission of guilt, the New York Times reports.
In New York Times interviews conducted with Colorado residents, people from both sides of the political spectrum said they were deeply skeptical about the healthcare bill being put together by Congress and the White House. The concerns illustrates the challenge President Obama and Democratic lawmakers face in trying to meld House and Senate bills in a way that can be sold to the public, reports the Times, with issues from how to cover abortion to whether to tax high-cost health plans coming into play.
The healthcare sector created 267,000 new jobs in 2009, including 22,000 payroll additions in December, new Bureau of Labor Statistics preliminary data released this morning show.
The overall economy shed 85,000 jobs in December as the nation's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 10%, according to BLS preliminary data.
Of the 22,000 new jobs in the healthcare sector in December, the biggest job growth came from physicians' offices, with 9,000 payroll additions, and home health services, with 8,000 payroll additions. Physician offices added 55,000 jobs in 2009.
The healthcare sector—which includes everything from hospitals to outpatient surgery centers to podiatrists' offices—has added 631,000 jobs since the recession began in December 2007. In that same time frame, the number of jobless people in the nation has risen from 7.7 million to 15.3 million, BLS figures showed.
Other healthcare highlights include:
Ambulatory healthcare services continue to push job expansion in this sector, with 179,000 jobs added in 2009, and 23,000 in December alone.
Outpatient care centers increased jobs by 13,000 in 2009.
Home healthcare services increased 74,000 jobs in 2009, with 8,000 added in December.
The BLS information is considered preliminary and may be revised.
House Democrats held a caucus-wide conference call to strategize about healthcare reform before lawmakers return to Washington next week, the Washington Post reports. More than 100 members participated, Democratic aides said, to discuss the differences between the House's health bill and the one passed by the Senate. With Senate Democrats barely able to muster the 60 votes necessary to pass their own bill and President Obama leaning toward the Senate's position on some key issues, House Democrats are increasingly concerned that they could be marginalized at the bargaining table, reports the Post.
President Barack Obama has made clear that, like the Senate, he favors a tax on high-end health insurance plans to help pay for health reform. Obama plans to meet with union leaders over the proposal in the next few days, a labor official told the Wall Street Journal. Unions, who are among the Democrats' most loyal supporters, argue that the plan will punish workers who won excellent health benefits in hard-fought negotiations.
Leaders of some of the Massachusetts' largest hospitals failed to show up at a public hearing to answer state regulators' questions about what is driving up healthcare costs. The hearings on hospital costs are part of a three-month probe by Gov. Deval Patrick's administration that started as an investigation into the reasons for the disproportionately high health insurance rates paid by small businesses. Leaders from just two of the 17 hospitals or hospital networks invited to testify yesterday appeared at the hearing. A month earlier, officials of the state's major insurance companies testified at an earlier set of hearings, but refused to answer many key questions.