Spending on a Massachusetts health insurance initiative would rise by more than $400 million in 2009 due primarily to projected growth in the number of people signing up for state-subsidized insurance, which now far exceeds earlier estimates. Although the price tag is ballooning, Gov. Deval Patrick has reaffirmed the state's commitment to ensuring that nearly every resident is covered.
A study has found that when women in Medicare managed-care plans were asked to contribute a small co-pay, 8 percent of the women decided to forgo mammograms altogether. Insurance plans are increasingly instituting cost-sharing in the form of co-pays with the hope that consumers will consider cost before getting healthcare services. Although the goal is that people will reconsider potentially unnecessary procedures or medicines but not forgo essential services, the study illustrates it does not always work out that way.
House Democrats have again failed to override President Bush's veto of a proposed $35 billion expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The vote left backers of the legislation about 15 votes short of the two-thirds majority of lawmakers voting necessary for an override. Democrats had argued that the nation's current economic troubles made expanding SCHIP--which provides subsidized health insurance to children of the working poor--all the more important.
The Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association has presented a proposal to reduce the number of Americans without medical coverage, and is calling it a blueprint for U.S. policymakers. The plan would combine tax credits to encourage people to buy coverage with ideas to improve the quality of healthcare. The association has also proposed helping states find and enroll people who are eligible for existing public health insurance programs but are not using them.
Officials for Cooper Green Mercy Hospital are seeking repayment of more than $16,000 that was paid to a consultant from the hospital's discretionary fund in 2006. The consultant claimed that he did not know the funds needed to be repaid but also confirmed also he did receive his paychecks in between receiving the advance.
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.