Democrats on a House panel offered a measure of sympathy for the federal task force that recommended less-frequent mammograms, while Republicans said the task force's message was wrong and could lead to unnecessary deaths, the Wall Street Journal reports. The remarks came at the first congressional hearing on the guidelines issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force on Nov. 16. The suggestions have provoked outrage from influential cancer groups, women's advocacy organizations, and radiologists.
Mercy Medical Center-Sioux City (IA) has agreed to pay $400,000 to settle allegations that it purposely overcharged federal healthcare programs for the care of heart patients. Mercy Medical Center-Sioux City denied wrongdoing, but it agreed to pay the money to settle the matter. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office said this was the first time in Iowa history that a hospital had been prosecuted for overbilling the government under a program that pays extra for particularly expensive procedures. The "outlier" program is meant to encourage healthcare providers to take on unusually complicated cases, and prosecutors accused Mercy of using the arrangement to overcharge Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs for the care of heart patients.
Kindred Hospital Modesto (CA) will close its doors early in 2010 after efforts to sell the skilled-nursing facility were unsuccessful, its parent company announced. Kindred is eyeing a closure date at the end of January but first must have a closure plan approved by the state and make arrangements to transfer residents to appropriate healthcare facilities. The closure will result in job losses for 127 employees, including registered nurses, vocational nurses, nursing assistants and office personnel.
Increasingly, marketers are turning to "neuromarketing," or brain-imaging techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging in the quest for consumers' "buy button." Psychophysiologist Samuel D. Bradley, PhD, explains why the tool is not the magical solution marketers are longing for and notes that the brain will reveal answers only if marketers ask "meaningful questions in cleverly designed experiments."
Senators prepared to cast their first votes on healthcare reform and Democrats increasingly expressed optimism that they would succeed in passing a bill before Christmas, the Washington Post reports. Republicans are targeting key sections of the bill, including the nearly $400 billion in tax increases that would finance the legislation's 10-year, $848 billion cost. GOP lawmakers also are expected to propose significant changes to medical malpractice laws. To manage the expected Democratic amendments, Majority Leader Harry M. Reid and other leaders are urging their colleagues to focus only on top priorities for floor consideration, the Post reports.
Los Angeles County supervisors unanimously approved an agreement to partner with the UC Board of Regents to reopen Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital by 2013. Regents voted Nov. 19 to approve the agreement and provide 14 to 20 full-time physicians in addition to medical oversight for the proposed inpatient hospital. The hospital will be overseen by a new nonprofit agency governed by a seven-member board of directors—two appointed by the UC president, two by L.A. County officials, and three jointly. The directors, whom officials hope to name within a year, must have at least 10 years of experience in healthcare. The nonprofit will retain all hiring powers, the Los Angeles Times reports.