Officials in Fulton County, GA have agreed to provide the cash-strapped Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta with a $30 million advance in funding--but declining to back a $200 million loan to the facility. The decisions by the Fulton arrived a week after the Fulton County Board of Commissioners budgeted Grady some $24 million below 2007's funding level.
Nashville-based HCA Inc., the nation's largest hospital chain, is among the several hospital chains that take advantage of economies of scale that they've realized through their large size to bring in additional revenues. For a number of hospitals, HCA is a bill collection and purchasing partner, for example.
The American Medical Association says it will this year spend about $15 million on its Voice for the Uninsured Campaign-- tripling the amount it spends to promote its campaign for the uninsured. In 2007, the first phase of the campaign cost the AMA about $5 million from the August launch through the end of the year.
State health officials warn Oregonians seeking to join the Oregon Health Plan to be wary of telephone solicitations by callers posing as state workers and asking for a Social Security number. The issue is of special concern this month, because the Oregon Health Plan is accepting new enrollees for its OHP Standard benefit package for the first time since mid-2004.
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield launched a new program designed to reward physicians as 7 percent extra for meeting a variety of standards of care. Those measures are a mix of process (if women get needed mammograms), service (if there are weekend or evening hours) and outcomes (if patients lower their cholesterol). The standards for bonus pay are taken from national organizations such as Medicare, medical specialty societies and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), the accreditation body for health insurers.
Instead of waiting for hours in an emergency room or landing in a nursing home, New Yorkers with government health coverage will soon have opportunity to avoid those costly treatment venues by going to their own family doctor. Gov. Eliot Spitzer proposed changing the way New York reimburses hospitals and doctors for services as part of overall changes aimed at making healthcare cheaper for taxpayers and better for patients.