States, the federal government and private insurers are experimenting with paying primary-care doctors extra money to oversee and coordinate patients' care. The pay boost rewards doctors who reshape their practices to recreate an era when a trusted family physician helped patients through hospitalizations, coordinated specialist care, and provided routine screenings. The efforts may save money by reducing hospitalizations, ER visits, and disease. The "medical homes" concept is a modern twist on an idea first promoted in the 1960s.
Given the organization's recent troubles, the CEO job at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital would appear to fall somewhere between unattractive and impossible, but industry experts said the slate of finalists is impressive. The winner will become the sixth leader of the Grady Health System in the past three years. The new head of Grady will face daunting challenges—the hospital's finance chief has projected a deficit of $18 million to $43 million this year. But all the candidates for the CEO job have dealt with some of the same problems that plague Grady, consultants say.
Three metro Atlanta hospitals have filed written appeals opposing an open heart surgery center approved for Lawrenceville, GA-based Gwinnett Medical Center. Gwinnett Medical Center cleared a major hurdle June 5 by gaining approval from the state Department of Community Health to start the open heart surgery center. However, the recent hospital opposition to the $32.9 million project places the project in limbo. Gwinnett Medical Center President and CEO Phil Wolfe issued a written statement saying he is "deeply disappointed" by the opposition.
Demand for care at Philadelphia's Fox Chase Cancer Center is up, and officials say the facility must grow soon. Its plans, estimated to cost $2 billion over 25 years, are mired in a years-long tussle with neighbors, so Fox Chase recently announced building a second campus in Delaware. Opposition is already surfacing there as a Delaware hospital with a big cancer program questions the use of state money to lure an outsider into its territory. While Fox Chase's ambitions stall, other hospitals are scrambling to attract the growing numbers of cancer patients in Philadelphia's highly competitive market.
State regulators will allow Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan to increase rates for some individual health insurance policies, but it's unclear what the final rate increase will be for the fewer than 20,000 customers under age 65 covered by the policies. The Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Regulation said it rejected the company's request for a 24.3% rate increase, but Blue Cross said an increase of 23% would be allowable under the ruling.
A planned $700 million to $850 expansion at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics will result in an increase in patient costs, but officials said they don't yet know how much. The expansion will include a new children's care center and a critical care tower, and will ensure that most of the hospital's rooms are single-patient. In May, the Iowa state Board of Regents authorized the hospital to begin planning the expansion. At the meeting, a proposal to increase patient costs by 6% was approved to reflect increases in the cost of utilities, supplies and drugs.