A prominent Los Angeles-area sports medicine clinic has agreed to pay $3 million to the federal government to settle allegations that it received illegal kickbacks for referring patients to another healthcare provider. The Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic received kickbacks from HealthSouth Corp. in the form of stock-option grants, donations to the Kerlan-Jobe Foundation, loan forgiveness on an equipment lease, and a high ownership interest in an ambulatory surgery center owned by the two healthcare firms. In exchange, Kerlan-Jobe referred patients to HealthSouth facilities for medical care, federal prosecutors said.
The Congressional Budget Office announced that the Senate health bill could significantly reduce costs for many people who buy health insurance on their own, and that it would not substantially change premiums for the vast numbers of Americans who receive coverage from large employers. The eagerly awaited report provided Democrats with ammunition against Republicans who have criticized the bill on the ground that it would raise costs for a majority of Americans, the New York Times reports.
As the Senate opened debate on a plan to overhaul the nation's healthcare system, congressional budget analysts said the measure would leave premiums unchanged or slightly lower for the vast majority of Americans. The findings contradict assertions by the insurance industry that the average family's coverage would rise by thousands of dollars if the proposal became law. The CBO said the legislation would lead to higher average premiums in the relatively small and troubled individual market. But that extra cost would buy better coverage, the CBO said, and hefty federal subsidies would drive down payments by nearly 60% on average for low- and middle-income families, the Washington Post reports.
Millions of unemployed Americans face the prospect of a huge increase in health insurance costs due to the expiration of the government's COBRA subsidy. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, passed in February, launched a temporary government program to subsidize the cost of buying health insurance through a former employer's plan after a layoff. However, the COBRA subsidy was designed to last no more than nine months for each person who was unemployed. Hundreds of thousands who got this subsidy when it was first made available in March are slated to roll off the program December 1.
The family of Herman J. Russell, the namesake of large Atlanta development and construction firm H.J. Russell & Co., gave $1 million to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Hughes Spalding for hospital expansion. Russell told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution "this was our family’s chance to give a lasting gift that will ensure children now—and in the future—are cared for in a proper facility that has a pediatric focus, which is important since we know that children fare better when treated in a child-centered setting.” The gift is part of a $4.8 million critical-needs drive by the hospital.
Leaders of Maryland's renowned teaching hospitals are feeling vulnerable as the push for a healthcare overhaul focuses attention on the tremendous differences in hospital costs around the country, the Baltimore Sun reports. Urban academic medical centers such as top-ranked Johns Hopkins Hospital and the University of Maryland, with its world-class trauma center, are more expensive to run than community hospitals and rural teaching hospitals. The difference can mean patient bills that are higher by thousands of dollars, the Sun article contends.