Financial access to healthcare services has declined over the past two decades, despite the implementation of Obamacare and other government insurance programs, according to a new study.
The Chicago-based parent company of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is eliminating about 400 middle management positions, the company confirmed Tuesday. Health Care Service Corp. is eliminating the jobs this week from “various company locations to reduce organizational redundancy and improve decision making efficiency,” spokesman Greg Thompson said in a statement.
Aggressive mergers and acquisitions have been the hottest trend in the hospital industry for over a decade. Administrators and national hospital associations have defended these deals by promising they will lower costs and improve patient care. They almost never do.
To his 300 supporters and a stage full of cameras, Michael Bloomberg declared Sunday what many other Democratic presidential candidates before him have: “Health care is a right." But Bloomberg’s diagnosis of the American health care system could not be more different than those offered by his rivals for the Democratic nomination, who have blamed hospitals, Big Pharma and the insurance industry — some in harsher terms than others — for valuing profits over patients.
Philips will complete its transformation to a health technology business with the sale of its domestic appliances division, which no longer fits with the company’s range of hospital equipment and personal health products.
Gibbins Advisors, the independent monitor charged with validating HCA Healthcare’s compliance with the promises it made when it acquired Asheville-based Mission Health nearly a year ago, is taking its efforts public in a big way. From Jan. 28 to Feb. 13, the Nashville, Tenn.-based firm has scheduled seven 90-minute meetings open to the public at locations across Western North Carolina to provide information on its “role and scope” as independent monitor and to get feedback on HCA’s performance.