Prince George's County and the state of Maryland have agreed in principle to each spend $75 million to lure a healthcare company interested in taking over the county's hospital network. Under the agreement, Prince George's and the state would spend a total of $150 million over five years, beginning in fiscal 2011, to help fund hospital operations. The state would also spend an additional $24 million to improve equipment and facilities. A newly appointed seven-member hospital authority will seek bids from hospital companies willing to buy the system.
Atlanta's Grady Hospital interim CEO Pamela Stephenson has not earned all the degrees listed on her resume and in hospital-issued summaries of her achievements, records show. In a statement, she apologized and blamed a "word processing error" for a hospital news release that claimed she had a doctor of philosophy and a law degree from the University of Michigan. She does not. The news release said the CEO held two master's degrees, a PhD and a law degree from the University of Michigan. Her resume also lists a master of science in social planning and a master of social work from Michigan, but university system registrars this week could only confirm that she earned a single master of social work.
There are hundreds of thousands of unqualified doctors working across India, with an estimated 40,000 in Delhi's teeming slums alone, according to the Delhi Medical Council that registers doctors and monitors medical standards. For years, the government has waged an unsuccessful war against such doctors. But now a report compiled by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences recommends training and incorporating them into the formal healthcare system, which suffers from a dearth of physicians and nurses.
An increasing number of doctors are asking patients to pay an annual fee to gain access to their examining rooms. The trend is on the uptick nationally, particularly among experienced doctors frustrated by what many see as an insurance system that's reducing doctors' pay, coming up with new pay-for-performance rules, or pushing them to see more patients to lower costs. But some healthcare analysts warn of a widening gap between the haves and have-nots. Paul Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change in Washington, D.C., said the new business models could create a class system in medicine.
Doctors, physical therapists, and other medical providers are upset about a July 7 decision by the Oregon Workers' Compensation Division to change the way in which fees are paid. Although agency officials call the move necessary, the providers are now warning that if the July 7 decision stands, they could start refusing workers' compensation cases altogether.
The North Carolina Medical Board has decided to publish medical malpractice payouts doctors have made, but the information will not be as comprehensive as initially planned. Answering concerns from doctors, medical malpractice insurers, and defense lawyers, the Board voted to make public only settlements of more than $25,000. The board also decided that rather than immediately post settlements that spanned the previous seven years, the start date of the malpractice profiles will be October 2007, when the legislature made the rule effective.