Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, which in March warned it was on track to lose $20 million for the 2009 fiscal year, instead managed to post a $10.3 million operating gain for 2009. The gain for the 12 months that ended Sept. 30 represents a turnaround for the 620-bed hospital. Last winter, it laid off about 70 workers, consolidated research operations, and made other cuts to stabilize finances, the Boston Globe reports.
The Texas insurance consumer advocate is seeking to eliminate the blanket authority of health and disability insurers to decide what their policies cover. Public Insurance Counsel Deeia Beck has asked the state's insurance commissioner to end long-standing provisions in most health plans, called "discretionary" clauses, that give insurers the right to interpret their policies and decide what benefits must be paid. The health insurance industry strongly opposes such a change. Insurance Commissioner Mike Geeslin has held a hearing on the proposal and is considering whether to move forward, the Dallas Morning News reports.
A Miami psychiatrist who writes prescriptions for Medicaid patients at a rate of 150 a day, seven days a week, has been targeted by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) as an example of why the federal government should do more to investigate over-utilization of healthcare. The letter from Grassley to federal Medicaid officials comes at a time when authorities are looking for ways to reduce what experts believe is massive overspending in areas like Miami, where healthcare costs can be more than twice the national average, the Miami Herald reports.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll has found more Americans said the would rather stick with the status quo on healthcare than pass the Democrats' bill. More than four out of ten (44%) of respondents said it is better to not pass the plan and to keep the current system versus 41% who said it is better to enact the proposed healthcare overhaul. As recently as October, 45% said it was better to pass a bill while 39% preferred to status quo.
President Obama declared himself "cautiously optimistic" after a meeting with the entire Senate Democratic caucus, where he urged senators to put aside their differences and "seize the moment" to pass a measure that would extend health coverage to 30 million uninsured Americans, the New York Times reports. President Obama is confronting an increasingly sharp divide on the Democratic left, with liberals in the Senate and the House split on critical issues, the Times reports.
Federal agents announced they have broken up five separate rings that allegedly filed $61 million in false claims with Medicare, and charged 32 people in Miami, Florida; Detroit, Michigan; and Brooklyn, New York, with a variety of schemes to defraud the healthcare system for the elderly and disabled. The largest case, in Miami, involved a doctor and nurses who allegedly ordered home healthcare services that were not medically necessary, CNN reports.