Carolinas Medical Center-Union has again asked the state to approve a proposed "HealthPlex"--a 21,00 square-foot, $20.4-million emergency care and diagnostic center in Waxhaw, NC. The proposal stalled last year after the N.C. Division of Health Service Regulation declined to issue a certificate of need, saying CMC did not adequately identify the population the HealthPlex would serve and demonstrate need for the facility. CMC's new proposal addresses these issues.
Owners of nine separate Miami-based healthcare corporations have been sentenced to prison terms, according to federal prosecutors with the Southern District of Florida. The defendants had filed fraudulent Medicare claims amounting to more than $56 million in unnecessary durable medical equipment and infusion therapy.
Doctors who abuse alcohol or drugs should no longer be allowed to enroll in a confidential, state-monitored rehabilitation program, according to the president of the Medical Board of California. The California Medical Assn. and other physicians' groups have urged that substance-abusing doctors continue to be allowed to enroll in such a program. In 2007, the medical board voted to end such a program, designed to divert drug- and alcohol-abusing doctors from public disciplinary action to a confidential arrangement. The program is scheduled to end July 1.
Representatives from Lake Forest (IL) Hospital have officially withdrawn their proposal to merge with the parent of Condell Medical Center in Libertyville. In a memo to Lake Forest Hospital employees, administrators said the hospital will continue expansion plans in Lake County that include spending $70 million to add an outpatient surgery center at the Grayslake Outpatient & Acute Care Center.
The Institute of Medicine is lobbying Congress to establish a single national resource of health information to make it clear what is known about the effectiveness of a drug or treatment, and what is not. The group said spending on ineffective treatments only adds to the nation's growing healthcare bill. The proposal recommends that Congress direct the Department of Health and Human Services to establish and fund a program that evaluates clinical services and conducts systematic reviews of research studies.
Six physicians from a Pittsburgh obstetrical and gynecological group will transfer their medical practice from UPMC Mercy to West Penn Hospital. The news of the physicians' move comes less than three weeks after UPMC took control of Mercy. In a statement, UPMC said Mercy remains committed to providing women with high quality, advanced ob-gyn services at the hospital as well as at various UPMC Mercy ob-gyn physician offices.