The Chairman of the Prince George's County (MD) Hospital Authority says there are nine parties interested in buying at least parts of the hospital system. Authority Chairman Kenneth Glover declined to reveal the names of interested parties. Glover is urging a legislative panel to support a bill that would allow the seven-member hospital authority to sell the hospital and four other county health facilities.
As they search for savings to redo the nation's $2.4 trillion health system, key congressional Democrats and administration officials are indicating they're open to changing a system that's a burden for doctors but a boon to attorneys and some victims of medical error. "The cost issue is the thing that we actually think is the big driver in this whole debate," Obama told business leaders last week. Research, prevention and "medical liability issues—I think all those things have to be on the table," the president said.
Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party leaders on healthcare in Minnesota have released a wide range of legislative proposals, including setting up 24-hour emergency dental clinics and birthing centers for deliveries, and said the long-term savings would climb into hundreds of millions of dollars. But they acknowledged that some initiatives would initially cost money, a likely source of conflict in a session focused on erasing a $4.6 billion budget deficit.
The Laurelhurst Community Club has appealed Seattle's environmental impact statement for Seattle Children's Hospital's proposed expansion plan. The proposed hospital expansion would more than double the number of beds and building sizes on the hospital's 22-acre campus and the 1.8 acres facing it. Laurelhurst residents appealed the environmental impact review to the Seattle Hearing Examiner, saying it: "understates the expansion's harmful impacts, including gridlock, and refuses to study any compromise alternatives that would help prevent them."
Although the federal and state governments provide services or coverage for uninsured children, adults without insurance are often left with minimal access to healthcare. Often, they resort to using emergency room visits for primary care. But at the University of California-Irvine Outreach Clinic, medical students provide comprehensive healthcare to real patients—most of whom are uninsured, don't speak English, and haven't seen a doctor in years.
Key Senate chairmen Max Baucus and Ted Kennedy will be central to the big health-reform push in Washington this year, but they are part of a larger, bipartisan group that is meeting every week to try and figure out the details of how to actually create a bill that might get broad support. Baucus calls the group, which includes Democratic and Republican leaders of the finance, health and budget committees, the "Board of Directors."