The administrator and chief operating officer of the Pike County Hospital in Texas have been arrested on felony check charges for allegedly writing bad checks to a physician. Authorities say 61-year-old Robert Hicks of Oklahoma City and 63-year-old Arthur Clyde Benson Jr. of Richardson, Texas, wrote two checks for nearly $8,900 for salary payments to Dr. George Gray of Little Rock. Hicks serves as the chief operating officer for the hospital while Benson is the administrator.
As its customer base slips and healthcare reform looms, Aetna is laying off 625 employees now and will make a similar number of reductions early next year, the company announced. The layoffs are across many areas of the company, and Aetna is not exiting any markets or businesses, the company said. Aetna grew rapidly between March 2007 and September 2008, adding 5,700 jobs nationwide. The company had about 1,000 layoffs at the end of 2008 and no 2009 layoffs until now, the Hartford Courant reports.
Northeast Hospital Corp., parent company of Beverly (MA) Hospital and an outpatient affiliate in neighboring Danvers, MA, announced it has eliminated 22 jobs in an effort to become leaner and more efficient. The job cuts, which include 11 vacant positions and layoffs of 11 employees ranging from managers and assistants to secretaries, will save the healthcare provider about $1.8 million annually in salary and benefits.
The Senate healthcare bill does not include a new surtax on the wealthy that House Democrats' legislation relies on to offset costs of overhauling the system. But Senate Democrats have their own taxes that are stirring controversy and likely to be at the center of debate, the Wall Street Journal reports. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made a late change to his bill by adding an extra Medicare payroll tax, which would generate $54 billion over 10 years according to the Congressional Budget Office. Under the plan, wages over $200,000 for single people and $250,000 for married couples would be subject to a 1.95% payroll tax, up from the current 1.45%.
Due to a loss of Minnesota healthcare funds, Hennepin County Medical Center plans to stop seeing uninsured, nonemergency patients from other counties, cut 150 to 200 jobs, and close two clinics on its downtown campus. HCMS faces a 2010 budget that is "not sustainable," officials said. The changes, which would take place in 2010, were approved by the hospital's board and go to the county board next month for final approval. HCMC officials have warned for months that the hospital, which sees 140,000 patients a year in its emergency department alone, cannot continue to absorb losses in state funding and still continue to care for the uninsured patients, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
Outpatient-surgery centers are booming in Pennsylvania, according to a new report by the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. Even during the height of the recession, the number of outpatient centers continued to grow, to 261. Between June 2008 and May 2009, 17 centers opened and three closed. Their number has quadrupled in 10 years. Profit also continued growing, as the average total margin rose from 24.31% in fiscal 2007 to 26.06% in fiscal 2008.