Illinois residents without health insurance were poised to get substantial price breaks on hospital care under legislation passed in the spring, but the deal could be falling apart because of a recent amendatory veto by Gov. Rod Blagojevich. The bill would have guaranteed uninsured Illinois consumers the most generous hospital discounts in the U.S. and capped what they spend annually on hospital care. An estimated 775,000 families in the state would have qualified financially for assistance.
A virtual pharmacy system that has been tested in North Dakota allows residents in rural areas to visit a drugstore and talk to someone about their health needs via the Internet. The telepharmacies are staffed with registered pharmacy technicians who use remote cameras to contact pharmacists in another location and show them the original signed prescription, computer-generated label, stock bottle where the pills are stored, and the bottle the patient will take home. Once the prescription is approved, patients have a mandatory private consultation with pharmacists through real-time video and audio. Now other states that have changed laws to allow for remote pharmacies.
Maui Medical Group is expanding to Kihei, HI, where it will open its fourth clinic in November. Maui Medical Group, a multi-specialty group practice with more than 55 doctors, has clinics in Wailuku, Lahaina, and Pukalani.
The state Department of Health and Environmental Control
board has given final approval to the South Carolina Health Plan,
and accepted agency recommendations against an open-heart surgery unit for Lexington Medical Center. Several members of the DHEC board, however, called on the Legislature to reform the process by which hospitals and other institutions can gain approval to open new programs and offer better care. Lexington Medical had hoped to meet South Carolina requirements for obtaining a Certificate of Need to open a new program by amending the health plan.
Douglas A. Ries has spent the past 25 years growing Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis. Ries now describes Cardinal Glennon as one of the most successful freestanding children's hospitals in the nation, and he attributes part of that success to the hospital's long-standing partnership with St. Louis University. Ries is leaving Cardinal Glennon as president in October, and will transition into senior network executive for university affiliations at SSM Healthcare. The new position will allow him to expand SSM's partnerships with academic medical centers, beyond pediatrics and obstetrics.
Almost half of eye clinic patients included in a study attended weekly religious services, and 82% felt that prayer was very important to their sense of well-being. The study included 124 consecutive eye clinic patients who completed a questionnaire that included questions about their spirituality. Sixty percent were being seen for vision problems related to diabetes, 15% for vein blockages, and the rest were being seen for other eye problems.