Developer Daniel Corp. has completed a deal to buy HealthSouth Corp.'s U.S. 280 campus for $43.5 million, with plans to transform the property into a hotel and new office building, as well as the possibility of restaurants and retailers at the site. But the firm's first priority is finding a use for the unfinished hospital that sits on the property, a $200 million half-finished facility that HealthSouth has unsuccessfully tried to market to healthcare users.
On the eve of a major legislative hearing, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's healthcare overhaul has won so little support that the Democratic leadership may have to alter a committee's makeup for the measure to pass. A report by the nonpartisan legislative analyst's office questions some of the plan's fiscal assumptions, and estimated that by the fifth year of operation, the plan would be spending $300 million more than it was raising.
In December, President Bush vetoed a bill that would more than double spending on the State Children's Health Program for a second time, saying the bill would encourage too many families to replace private insurance with government-subsidized health coverage. With the economy struggling, Democratic lawmakers are now stressing that more families will need to rely on SCHIP this year if unemployment increases. The House is set to vote on whether to override Bush's second SCHIP veto.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc has announced said that the number of its workers without health insurance has fallen over the last year after being helped by new health plans. Company representatives also said it will commission a study to better understand why some workers declined health coverage and to identify things that can be done to encourage them to accept it in the future.
Dearborn-based Oakwood Healthcare System has joined Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids to become Michigan's second health system to post its price and quality measurements. Spectrum, which began posting its prices in fall 2006 on its Web site, will also soon publish average prices paid by Medicaid, Medicare and commercial insurers. In December 2007, the Michigan Health & Hospital Association began an online database that lists charges and payments for 50 common Medicare procedures at 146 nonprofit hospitals in the state.
The Washington state Senate's healthcare chairwoman has unveiled an ambitious universal healthcare plan, bankrolled by payroll taxes, that she hopes to implement by 2010. The "Washington Health Partnership" would levy new taxes on businesses and workers, using the proceeds to extend health benefits to all Washingtonians not covered by a federal program.