SSM Health Care's St. Mary's Health Center has submitted a letter of intent to Missouri's Certificate of Need program for a $200 million hospital in Jefferson City. The full-service hospital would feature 167 private patient rooms, and the project is scheduled to begin in 2010 with completion in 2012.
A group of healthcare executives and medical professionals from across the country have joined with a group of East St. Louis activists to form an organization they say is willing to purchase Kenneth Hall Regional Hospital. The group said it has made an offer to the East St. Louis hospital and has financing to complete the deal. A spokeswoman for the Kenneth Hall's owner, however, said the hospital has received "no viable offer."
Woodland Hills, CA-based Health Net Inc. sold individual policies with the promise of medical coverage while engaging in a secret and illegal scheme to drop patients if they needed expensive treatment, according to a lawsuit filed by the Los Angeles city attorney. Health Net Inc. defrauded thousands of policyholders using "a wide range of unlawful, unfair and fraudulent acts and practices," the suit maintained.
A quarter of Hispanics surveyed in 2007 for the Rockefeller Foundation said they were very worried about losing their health insurance coverage, according to an analysis of the findings by the Economic Policy Institute. In addition, 26 percent of those Hispanics surveyed reported not going to a doctor because of the cost, and 25 percent said they had taken money out of savings to cover health expenses.
The Fulton County (GA) Board of Commissioners have approved a lease agreement that would shift operational control of Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta from the hospital's board to a new nonprofit corporation. Under the lease agreement, daily operations of the hospital system would be controlled by a nonprofit board of business and community leaders, but the Grady board would continue to have broad oversight and would own the real estate. The restructuring plan still requires the approval of the DeKalb County Board of Commissioners.
States now are looking at adults between the ages of 19 and 29 as they seek to reduce the number of uninsured. In the past two years alone, 17 states have passed laws that let young adults stay covered under their family policy until their mid-20s. Age limits range from 24 in Delaware, Indiana and South Dakota, to 30 in New Jersey. Eleven states settled on age 25, according to the Commonwealth Fund.