Springfield, MO-based system CoxHealth has agreed to pay $60 million to resolve allegations of Medicare fraud and other irregularities. The U.S. attorney's office in Kansas City said that CoxHealth would pay $35 million immediately, followed by five yearly payments of $5 million each. In a separate agreement with the Office of Inspector General of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, Cox signed a "corporate integrity agreement" to ensure its compliance with Medicare and other federal requirements.
A new Pacific Northwest medical school has celebrated its opening. The College of Osteopathic Medicine plans to send primary care doctors to serve in rural and low-income areas in a five-state region. Seventy percent of the students are from the Pacific Northwest. The college already has agreements with hospitals, clinics and doctors in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana to provide clinical training to students in their third and fourth years.
After patients complained for years about valuables disappearing, in 2006 Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital tightened its policy about the handling of patients' valuables. But property continued to vanish: There were 260 thefts involving patients, employees and visitors in 2007, compared with 262 in 2006 and 279 in 2005. Now
hospital officials are, once again, changing Grady's security policy regarding patients' valuables.
Ronald Herberman, MD, the director of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute and UPMC Cancer Centers, plans to issue an advisory to faculty and staff about the possible health risks associated with cellular phone use. The advisory suggests measures to limit exposure to electromagnetic radiation emitted by the devices. It also recommends that children not use cell phones except in emergencies. Herberman said he hoped the suggestions would spread to others within Pitt and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, as well as to the general public.
Neighborhood opponents of a new hospital in Montgomery County's East Norriton Township in Pennsylvania have withdrawn two legal challenges to the project, according to representatives for Albert Einstein Healthcare Network. Einstein and Montgomery Hospital are working together to build a $300 million, 192-bed hospital. Two people who live near the proposed facility had filed challenges to a change in zoning regulations.
An annual back-to-school campaign aimed at enrolling children in low-cost government insurance is now trying to get their parents and other adults signed up, too. Indiana Health Commissioner Judy Monroe, state schools superintendent Suellen Reed and Medicaid chief Jeff Wells joined advocates from Covering Kids & Families of Indiana in appealing to low-income families to enroll their children in Hoosier Healthwise and themselves in the new Healthy Indiana Plan. More than half a million Indiana residents who lack basic healthcare coverage might qualify for free or low-cost health insurance through the state programs, advocates said.