Union County, NC, Commissioners have renewed the county's lease with Carolinas Medical Center-Union and extended the agreement until 2048. Under the new lease, the hospital will pay the county $2.75 million rent per year, and a one-time payment of $25 million. With the extended lease, CMC officials say they will be able to add interventional cardiology services, more cancer care, Level III trauma services, and expand the women's health and emergency departments.
High-tech emergency departments, staffed with doctors and nurses but often miles from a hospital, are increasing rapidly nationwide. In addition to convenience for patients, these stand-alone ERs can ease overcrowding in nearby hospitals. But critics question their limited services, their ability to decrease the overall burden for area hospitals and their impact on healthcare spending. The number of such facilities owned by hospitals or entrepreneurial doctors grew 23% from 2005 to 2006, according to the American Hospital Association. Currently, about a dozen are opening or in the planning stages in states such as Florida, Minnesota and Texas.
Specialists have abandoned emergency rooms in droves, and their exodus is both a cause and a result of the backlogs that plague California hospital emergency rooms. A 2006 survey by the American College of Emergency Physicians found that 73% of emergency departments in the United States had inadequate on-call coverage by specialist physicians. One reason for the flight of specialists from emergency rooms is the surge of patients who have no medical insurance or who use Medi-Cal, which pays some of the lowest rates in the country.
A bill that aims to make it harder to file frivolous malpractice lawsuits has sailed through the Tennnessee Senate and is headed toward the governor's desk for approval. The bill requires attorneys to have a qualified medical expert sign off on the merits of their case within 90 days of filing suit, and requires that doctors receive 60 days' notice before a lawsuit is filed. Various forms of legislation have been working its way through the state legislature for several years, and the final version won praise from doctors and malpractice attorneys alike.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is trying to fast-track legislation that would block Medicaid rules likely to cut federal healthcare spending on the poor and force states to absorb billions of dollars in costs. Reid's "Rule 14" maneuver effectively bypasses the Senate Finance Committee and places the measure on the Senate calendar, meaning it can be brought to the Senate floor for consideration at any time.
A federal judge has ordered Philippines-based Health Visions Corp. to pay back $100 million it swindled from the U.S. military's health insurance program. Federal prosecutors say Health Visions bilked the military's Tricare program out of $99.9 million between 1998 and 2004. The program insures 9.2 million servicemen and dependents worldwide.