Children's Hospital could get as much as $20 million from the city of Birmingham toward its planned $450 million expansion through a development proposal announced by Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford. The hospital wants to build a facility just north of its current location that would house most of its 275 licensed beds, a much larger emergency department, operating rooms and other services. Children's also plans to ask the state for more licensed beds as part of the Certificate of Need application the hospital will file with state health regulators in the next few months.
Executives of a failed healthcare company turned a good business into "a pack of lies" as part of a scheme that defrauded investors of $1.9 billion, a federal prosecutor said during closing statements in a month-old white-collar crime trial. Two former owners and three former executives of National Century Financial Enterprises broke promises, misled investors and tried to cover up wrongdoing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Wes Porter said in U.S. District Court.
The three candidates who remain in the race for the White House have presented healthcare plans that include mandates, quality measures, and tax credits, but there is another option that more than 10 states have implemented, which could help reduce costs while removing barriers to care for the 47 million uninsured Americans.
The idea is mandate-lite legislation, which allows health insurers to offer plans that are not as mandate-heavy. It is quite a departure from the mandated health insurance movement.
Mandated health insurance is a relatively new phenomenon. Over the past 40 years, well-meaning leaders have implemented mandates that they believe will improve care, but these mandates have resulted in increased healthcare costs.
It's interesting that the trend toward mandates mirrors government's added influence over individuals' lives. Combine a growing number of Americans' support of greater governmental influence with the fact that many see themselves as non-stakeholders in their own healthcare, and you have a big brother system that mandates services and frowns upon choice.
According to the Council for Affordable Health Insurance, a research and advocacy association of insurance carriers, in its "Health Insurance Mandates in the States 2008," there are 1,961 mandated healthcare benefits and providers throughout the country. Those mandates are increasing healthcare costs (in some states, more than 50%), according to the study.
Some of the state mandates are:
Hair and limb prostheses, bone mass measurement, and care for TMJ disorders
Providers like dentists, optometrists, and marriage therapists
Covered persons such as non-custodial children, dependent students (some as old as 30), and adopted children
Then there are the states that mandate services like athletic trainers (Arkansas), and cover persons like legal non-residents living in the U.S. (Maine). The vast majority of mandates barely increase costs on their own, but when hundreds of mandates are piled on top of one another, costs rise resulting in lower-middle-class Americans being priced out.
There is good news though. There has been state legislation to loosen those healthcare mandates and require a mandate's economic impact be considered when a bill is presented. Mandate-lite gives smaller businesses a chance to offer health insurance that isn't weighed down by the requirements that many health plans have, allowing companies to offer lower-cost options to such under-covered groups as recent college graduates. Health plans with fewer mandates allow the 20s-set to purchase basic health insurance without being forced to pay fees for coverage they will probably not use, such as chronic disease, grandchildren, or cleft palate coverage.
Some states have found mandate-lite legislation as a way to cut healthcare costs, but the idea isn't part of the president hopefuls' healthcare plans. Instead, there is talk of more mandates, tax credits, and retail clinics.
Florida's hospital leaders are urging state legislators to reject a proposal to eliminate the state's planning process for new hospitals. The hospitals warn that the proposal would further destabilize a healthcare system already bracing for cuts in funding to care for the elderly and poor, and one that is grappling with serious shortages of doctors and health workers. Eliminating health planning for new hospitals would lead to an explosion of small, "limited service" hospitals and a two-tiered hospital system in the state, the hospital leaders said.
Texas health insurance rolls for children of the working poor swelled by about 7 percent in the past month, but much of the gain was offset by having fewer children on Medicaid. Enrollment in the Children's Health Insurance Program increased by some 24,000 youngsters to about 382,000 in that time. This marks the highest enrollment level in three years, the state reported.
Aetna has plans to announce a new service called SmartSource that draws upon a patient's own medical history to help answer questions about symptoms and treatments. The insurer plans to provide the service free to its customers in the hopes it will help people manage their own healthcare. Aetna leaders also think the service can help it recruit and retain employer-customers worried about the costs of care. SmartSource will be offered to employers that provide worker health benefits through Aetna, and a gradual introduction will begin in August 2008.