New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's health coverage plan has debuted before a legislative committee to mixed reviews. Some business leaders, healthcare companies and providers have praised the plan, calling it a big step toward reforming a system under which 400,000 New Mexicans remain uninsured. Critics, however, say that the plan goes too far-- or not far enough.
A commission appointed by New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine has recommended that the state establish guidelines for identifying hospitals in financial distress that are worth helping, and those are that are not. Hospitals deemed essential would then be propped by state grants and loans, with what the state health commissioner described as an early-warning system. The report did not spell out which hospitals should be shuttered, but said that a good number of New Jersey's 78 hospitals were poorly managed and inefficient, and that a "large number of hospitals appear headed toward distress in the next few years."
California Medical Center have backed off plans to reduce San Francisco's St. Luke's Hospital to an outpatient hub, and instead have formed a panel charged with investigating ways to retain the facility's health services. Cal Pacific has faced intense criticism since publicizing plans in October to downgrade St. Luke's to an ambulatory center with a free-standing emergency room.
As health insurance costs continue to rise, some employers are adopting a controversial new approach that ends group coverage and gives employees $50 to $200 or so a month to help them buy their own. The shift is touted as a lower-cost way for employers to offer workers health coverage, while making smaller and more predictable financial contributions toward that coverage. If broadly adopted, the new model would represent a fundamental shift in health coverage.
A Clarksville, TN, health clinic geared toward assisting uninsured patients helped 226 patients during its first three weeks of operation, clinic officials said. Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Care's main clinic is in Nashville, and the Clarksville satellite clinic opened at the beginning of 2008.
Although the nation's hospitals have enjoyed steady and even improving finances in recent years, they could see some rough times ahead, according to a report from Moody's Investors Service.Moody's provides financial ratings and evaluates debt of the nation's nonprofit hospitals, and said its "stable" outlook for 2008 will be less certain in 2009 and 2010 should the economy take a turn for the worse.