The chancellor at the University of California-San Francisco has formed a task force to review and improve security practices following two recent security breaches involving patient medical information. The group will review security practices nationally and develop a "rapid-response" plan to ensure that patients, physicians and others are given timely notice about breaches. In one breach, information about 6,300 patients was exposed on the Internet for several months.
Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, CA, has been a key healthcare provider to nearby residents for nearly a century, but now some patients and activists worry that recent cuts and other changes are diminishing its role in the community. Since taking over the hospital in late 2007, the medical center's new owner has shuttered departments, laid off 13% of its staffers, and canceled most private insurance contracts. To the disproportionately low-income and uninsured residents of South Los Angeles and other nearby communities, the changes at Centinela are another blow after a long spate of hospital cutbacks and closures throughout the area.
Some hospitals in Southeastern and South Central Pennsylvania have had security breaches in their newborn-care units, and an e-mail alert has been sent to hospitals by the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania. The warning, which also was posted on the association's Web site, noted that at one hospital, an obstetrician's white lab coat, identification, stethoscope, and prescription pad were stolen. A spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Health Department would not specify the number of incidents or hospitals involved in the security breaches.
Hartford (CT) Hospital has agreed to reimburse the federal Medicare program $788,960 to settle allegations that it overcharged for certain cancer treatments over a four-year period. The hospital has became the fourth in the state to pay damages and penalties under the U.S. False Claims Act stemming from overbilling for intravenous treatments given to patients from 2000 to 2004. Federal law allows hospitals to bill Medicare for one unit of chemotherapy per patient visit, and instead Hartford Hospital often billed Medicare for up to six units of chemotherapy per visit, said lawyers who announced the settlement.
Amid a major renovation of its hospital complex in Chicago, Rush University Medical Center got some good news as it prepares to issue $400 million in debt to help pay for its $1 billion capital spending plan. Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service has revised the outlook to "positive from stable" for the Rush University Medical Center Obligated Group, a vehicle that allows the hospital to cooperate on financing needs and borrow money. The positive outlook will make Rush "more attractive to people who buy" the hospital's bonds, said the hospital's CFO. The medical center intends to issue debt in two rounds, with a $200 million issuance in fall 2008 and another $200 million in 18 to 24 months.
Healthcare reform in Massachusetts has increased the number newly insured patients in the state, and the demand for care has gone up as a result. The trend, along with a longstanding shortage of primary-care physicians, is creating a real crunch for community clinics, say advocates of healthcare reform as well as medical professionals. Critics have said healthcare reform should not have been attempted without first addressing the workforce shortages, but state officials and healthcare advocates are starting to address the problem of recruitment. The state Legislature has taken up a bill, for example, which includes a clause aimed at establishing a primary-care recruitment center in the state.