During a forum at Miami Dade College Medical Center Campus, a nursing union pushed for national and state legislation to set minimum nurse-to-patient ratios amid a worsening shortage of nurses. Nursing advocates assert that hospitals would lure more nurses back to work and reduce turnover if they would boost staffing levels so that nurses aren't chronically overworked. Most hospitals are opposed to any mandates, arguing they shackle administrators and impair their flexibility to respond to dynamic hospital situations.
Baptist Health South Florida has agreed to pay the U.S. government $7,775,000 to settle claims it paid excessive compensation to an oncology group that was a source of patient referrals to two of Baptist's hospitals. The payments were linked to a contract under which Oncology Hematology Group of South Florida provided physics and other radiation-related services to the two hospitals. Baptist Health discovered, investigated and voluntarily disclosed to the government the overpayment.
California health regulators have connected 14 more people affiliated with UCLA Medical Center to the improper viewing of celebrity medical records, bringing the number of current and former workers apparently implicated in the snooping scandal to 68. Each of the employees had signed a confidentiality agreement after being hired promising to access patient information "only in the performance of assigned duties and where required or permitted by law," according to investigators. UCLA officials have appointed a committee to review privacy policies and have pledged to retrain staff and improve computer systems to increase security.
Otis Story, the former chief executive of Atlanta-based Grady Memorial Hospital, has filed a lawsuit alleging that the hospital board chairwoman orchestrated his firing so she could assume his $600,000 a year job. The lawsuit contends that Pam Stephenson's conduct was "willful, malicious, fraudulent, wanton, oppressive, reckless," and says Stephenson's intent was to take Story down so she could increase her control over Grady hospital and increase her personal income. Story also sued the Grady board and is asking for $1.8 million in severance pay, a $60,000 signing bonus, and punitive damages.
The Pennsylvania Insurance Department will hold July hearings on the merger between Highmark and Independence Blue Cross. The three-day hearing is designed to hear from consumers and others about how the consolidation of the two huge insurers will affect the healthcare market.
New Jersey hospital workers rallied outside the Statehouse against Gov. Jon Corzine's plan to cut state hospital aid by 14 percent.
The protesters waved signs reading "Some Cuts Never Heal" and "Imagine a Day Without Us," and some wore surgical masks that read, "These cuts make me sick." Much of the hospital cuts would come from money given by the state to help treat New Jersey's 1.5 million uninsured residents. Protestors predicted that if the cuts are approved, it would result in shuttered hospitals, unemployed workers, eliminated services, longer drives and longer waits for patients.