At Banner Page Hospital in northern Arizona, traditional Navajo healing is merging with modern medicine. The hospital's Native American Cultural Committee is working toward an inclusive medical community by tackling the cultural sensitivities of the Navajo people, many of whom are wary of modern medicine. The 25-bed, Page, AZ-based facility serves a population of about 20,000 drawn from a 50-mile radius. About 50% of patients come from the nearby Navajo reservation.
It has been a year since the closure of emergency and inpatient services at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital in Los Angeles, and L.A. county officials have acknowledged that they remain far from fulfilling their promise of restoring it to full operation. The University of California has so far been unable to overcome significant obstacles to accepting management of the South Los Angeles facility. The financing, governance and role of labor unions remain unresolved, and officials on both sides said they did not expect to know until the end of the year if a deal could be struck.
One in three Texas foster children has been diagnosed with mental illness and prescribed mind-altering drugs, including some that the federal government has not approved for juveniles, state records show. Many of these drugs are prescribed by doctors who have a financial stake in pharmaceutical companies' success, according to an investigation. Dozens of physicians who treat children in state custody supplement their salaries with tens of thousands of dollars in consulting and speakers' fees, and they use drug company grants to fund research projects.
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield, New Jersey's largest health insurer, has filed to become a publicly held for-profit company. The move could bring the state a $1 billion windfall for healthcare, but it comes with concerns about how the change could impact consumers. Horizon representatives said converting to a for-profit company would help raise capital and allow competition with other insurers. The value of the insurer on the open market, which is estimated to be at least $1 billion, would go to a charitable foundation that, under current state law, would aim to provide healthcare for the needy. Horizon covers 3.6 million people, roughly four out of every 10 New Jerseyans.
The Food and Drug Administration may soon recommend doctors be required to undergo special education in order to prescribe powerful narcotics. Typically, state medical boards impose licensing requirements on doctors. A few states now provide doctors with education about the treatment of pain patients. But nationally, state medical boards have shown little interest in mandating added training in the use of potent pain medications or in screening patients for those prone to drug abuse. Pain experts say they support increased education for doctors, but some fear that mandatory training may harm limit the number of doctors prescribing such drugs and ultimately harm patients.
Maryland-based health management company WellNet Healthcare is launching Point to Point Healthcare this month. WellNet's clients nationwide will be among the first to test-drive the new system that lets employees create a personal network uniting their insurance claims manager with multiple doctors and pharmacies to better coordinate treatments. An online concierge helps workers find new specialists, and a message system reminds them to pick up prescriptions.