Arnold Kimn, MD, is quitting his medical practice to blog full-time about Apple because he found it was more profitable than practicing medicine. In 2000 while he was a fourth-year medical student, Kim launched the site MacRumors, a site devoted to news and rumors about Apple. Traffic grew over the years, and around 2003-2004, during the time he was starting his nephrology fellowship, ad revenue from the site started growing. Eventually, Kim says he was making more from MacRumors than he was from practicing nephrology and decided to quit medicine.
The CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans held a public meeting in Columbus, OH, this week with a group of uninsured citizens, kicking off the health insurance trade group's nationwide push for healthcare reform. AHIP officials say the drive precedes similar initiatives that will undoubtedly be part of the upcoming presidential election.
The five major New Orleans-area hospitals lost a combined $386.8 million between 2005 and 2007, and still face major financial hurdles despite lower losses projected in 2008, according to a congressional report released by the Government Accountability Office. Some hospital executives said they hope the report will persuade Congress to approve a stalled $350 million package intended to help hospitals in Louisiana and Mississippi deal with post-Katrina cash-flow problems. The five New Orleans hospitals would combine to receive $135 million under the package.
The board for Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta has announced that Michael Young, 52, will be the hospital's new CEO beginning Sept. 1. For three years, Young has been CEO of a similar but smaller urban hospital. At the same meeting, the board voted to remove current CEO Pam Stephenson, who will leave when Young takes over. Stephenson will receive a $325,000 separation deal, and her departure ends an embarrassing chapter during which Stephenson was accused of trying to profit from her tenure as the hospital's chief and her quick removal.
Although residential and commercial construction lending has dried to a trickle in Birmingham, AL, one segment of the credit market has remained vibrant: loans to the city's thriving firms that buy and sell healthcare real estate. Banks and other investors in the industry don't mind backing huge, big money healthcare ventures because doctors don't have much choice: the ones who want the top practices and the highest incomes need to rent space in the best hospitals available. As a result, it translates to pricing power for the landlord.
Tevi Troy, PhD, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has encouraged North Texas insurers and employers to join a national network designed to make healthcare pricing and quality information more readily available to consumers. Troy came to Dallas to encourage the formation of a Chartered Value Exchange, a local collaboration among employers, patients and the health industry. Fourteen communities across the U.S. have joined a network of the exchanges, part of the Bush administration's effort to create a value-driven healthcare system.