Unlike other presidential candidates who want to control obesity and smoking to cut health care costs, Republican candidate Ron Paul said he would not promote preventive medicine and instead provide more choices for patients.
Connecticut-based Aetna's preferred provider plans have been granted full accreditation from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. The private nonprofit organization reviews health plans on access to and quality of care, claims payment and customer service.
After more than a year of negotiations, the University of Kansas Hospital, University of Kansas Medical Center and Kansas University Physicians Inc. have reached a new affliliation agreement. The five-year deal was approved by the KU Hospital Authority Board, and calls for the hospital to increase its support for the medical center and the physicians group from about $31 million during the current fiscal year to more than $46 million next year.
Approximately 4 million nonelderly Floridians--about a quarter of the state's under-65 population--are expected to spend more than 10 percent of their income on healthcare in 2008, according to a report released from Families USA.
A Brentwood, TN-based operator of dialysis centers announced it has acquired a California company and its joint venture interest in 35 dialysis programs nationwide. The acquisition of Innovative Dialysis Systems Inc. of Long Beach is the largest by Ambulatory Services of America Inc.
Tufts Health Plan has donated $500,000 to Massachusetts Health Quality Partners, a nonprofit attempting to create new ways to measure physicians' performance. The gift is intended to accelerate the partnership's work and establish Tufts as a force for improving healthcare quality, the insurer said.