Congress has opened an investigation into Anthem Blue Cross' impending rate increases in California as President Obama cited the premium hikes—some as high as 39%—in his bid to pass national healthcare legislation. The House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations announced they were examining the increases, which are set to take effect March 1. The subcommittee has scheduled a Feb. 24 hearing in Washington, while an Assembly committee in Sacramento has set a hearing for Feb 23, the Los Angeles Times reports.
A former top executive with Tustin (CA) Hospital and Medical Center has agreed to plead guilty to paying illegal kickbacks for patients recruited from skid row in Los Angeles, according to papers filed in federal court. Vincent Rubio was the hospital's chief financial officer when authorities raided the facility two years ago during an investigation into an alleged multimillion-dollar scheme to defraud Medicare and Medi-Cal. Authorities contended that the hospital recruited thousands of homeless people to undergo unnecessary medical tests and procedures, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Philadelphia-based insurer Cigna Corp. has closed a deal to spend up to $5 million to buy Kronos Optimal Health Co. Kronos currently contracts with 13,000 health coaches around the United States who can counsel on weight loss, stress reduction, fitness, and diet, all part of the growing trend toward "wellness" at work, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Cigna representatives said that giving Kronos access to Cigna's larger customer base would move it into profitability while providing a necessary enhancement for Cigna's existing customers.
A week after board members expressed outrage at Miami-based Jackson Health System's miscalculated losses, its chief financial officer has stepped down, the Miami Herald reports. Chief executive Eneida Roldan told the executive committee of the Public Health Trust that Frank Barrett had earlier announced his intention to retire in May. "He will stay on in a transitional position" until then, Roldan said. Barrett told the board recently that the loss in fiscal 2009, originally thought to be $46.8 million, was really $203.8 million. The projected loss for fiscal 2010 jumped from $87 million to $229 million, the Herald reports.
Although health maintenance organizations in California need to improve screenings for cancer and other medical conditions, most receive high marks for customer satisfaction, a new state report said. Six of California's nine largest HMOs earned higher patient approval ratings in 2009 than they did the year before, say officials from the Office of the Patient Advocate. The report is based on 2008 data.
For the nation's hospitals, the cost of doing nothing in health reform translates into tens of billions of dollars each year in medical bills that go unpaid by patients with little or no insurance, the New York Times reports. Nationwide, the cost of unpaid care for hospitals, which includes charity care as well as money that could not be collected from patients, was around $36 billion in 2008, and is expected to get higher. The number of people without insurance in the U.S. could increase to as high as 58 million by 2014, from about 49 million now, according to an estimate by the Urban Institute.