One out of every three working-age, uninsured Americans suffers from a chronic illness and isn’t getting the medical care they need, according to a report by researchers at the University of Washington in Seattle. Many of these people are forgoing doctors’ visits or relying on emergency rooms for their medical care, according to the study's authors. The report, based on an analysis of government health surveys of adults ages 18 to 64 years old, estimated that about 11 million of the 36 million people without insurance in 2004 had received a chronic-condition diagnosis.
Seeking to salvage two years of efforts to completely remake the state's health insurance system, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic legislators are nearing deals intended to rein in costly, meager medical insurance policies sold directly to individuals. They are negotiating measures that would limit insurer profits on individual plans, require plans to provide a minimum set of benefits, and restrict insurers' ability to cancel policies retroactively. The new focus reflects how far Schwarzenegger remains from his original goal to orchestrate medical insurance for the 5 million Californians who lack it. The state Senate rejected that $14.9-billion plan in January.
Administrators at Jackson South Community Hospital in Miami are set to break ground on a $102 million expansion project that will double the facility's size. By late 2011, the 199-bed hospital will have an expanded emergency room, 57 new private patient rooms, and three more operating rooms. There will also be a cardiac catheter lab to treat more heart conditions. The improved facilities will let the hospital provide more oncology, surgery, and cardiology services so South Miami-Dade patients can be treated closer to home.
Health and life insurance companies are increasingly using a health "credit report" drawn from databases containing prescription drug records on more than 200 million Americans to evaluate whether to cover individual consumers. While lawmakers debate how best to oversee the shift to computerized records, some insurers have begun testing systems that tap into prescription drug information, and also data about patients held by clinical and pathological laboratories. The trend may improve healthcare and save money, but privacy and consumer advocates fear it is taking place largely outside the scrutiny of federal health regulators and lawmakers.
Cathedral Healthcare's St. Michael's Medical Center of Newark, NJ, is now a part of Catholic Healthcare East, after the Newtown, PA-based company purchased the 141-year-old facility last week. The sale keeps St. Michael's open. Cathedral closed its other two hospitals, Columbus Hospital and Saint James Medical Center, earlier this year due to financial concerns.
As part of his infectious diseases practice, University of California-Davis physician Javeed Siddiqui, MD, regularly sees Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation prisoners as patients but is never in the same room with them. Siddiqui is an example of
the increasing role that telemedicine has been playing in inmate care in recent years. Doctors who treat inmates via telemedicine say it is a win-win because it's easier on them and the patient, more cost-efficient for the prison system, and provides a patient base for medical institutions.