A virtual pharmacy system that has been tested in North Dakota allows residents in rural areas to visit a drugstore and talk to someone about their health needs via the Internet. The telepharmacies are staffed with registered pharmacy technicians who use remote cameras to contact pharmacists in another location and show them the original signed prescription, computer-generated label, stock bottle where the pills are stored, and the bottle the patient will take home. Once the prescription is approved, patients have a mandatory private consultation with pharmacists through real-time video and audio. Now other states that have changed laws to allow for remote pharmacies.
Maui Medical Group is expanding to Kihei, HI, where it will open its fourth clinic in November. Maui Medical Group, a multi-specialty group practice with more than 55 doctors, has clinics in Wailuku, Lahaina, and Pukalani.
A couple has filed an appeal challenging a decision by Michigan's insurance commissioner to let Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan raise rates for about 18,000 non-elderly people who buy their own policies. At issue is an Aug. 18 ruling by state Insurance Commissioner Ken Ross approving rate hikes averaging 15.2% for seven Blue Cross plans. The increases bring monthly premiums for a family with two high-benefit plans to $1,636 a month, up from $1,164, as they were in April 2006 when Blue Cross sought the rate hike. The cheapest family plans went up to $562 from $459 a month.
The state Department of Health and Environmental Control
board has given final approval to the South Carolina Health Plan,
and accepted agency recommendations against an open-heart surgery unit for Lexington Medical Center. Several members of the DHEC board, however, called on the Legislature to reform the process by which hospitals and other institutions can gain approval to open new programs and offer better care. Lexington Medical had hoped to meet South Carolina requirements for obtaining a Certificate of Need to open a new program by amending the health plan.
Douglas A. Ries has spent the past 25 years growing Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis. Ries now describes Cardinal Glennon as one of the most successful freestanding children's hospitals in the nation, and he attributes part of that success to the hospital's long-standing partnership with St. Louis University. Ries is leaving Cardinal Glennon as president in October, and will transition into senior network executive for university affiliations at SSM Healthcare. The new position will allow him to expand SSM's partnerships with academic medical centers, beyond pediatrics and obstetrics.
Thousands of low-income residents will no longer be covered by Polk County, FL's indigent healthcare plan after it offered more benefits than it could afford and piled up a $15 million deficit. Polk County commissioners have voted to reduce the number of people covered by the Polk HealthCare Plan, scaling it back to 3,000 people in the upcoming fiscal year. Officials say 22,000 people were enrolled in the plan during 2006-07.