In response to recent infections and deaths from tainted medical scopes, U.S. lawmakers are wrestling with how to keep other potentially dangerous devices from harming patients. Members of Congress, federal officials and health-policy experts agree that the Food and Drug Administration's surveillance system for devices is inadequate and relies too heavily on manufacturers to report problems with their own products. But fixing the federal warning system to enable more timely identification of risky scopes, implants and surgical tools means overcoming significant challenges in Congress, from partisan divisions to the need for more government funding. Even then, it could take years for a new system to be up and running.
Dr. John Noseworthy is best known as president and CEO of the Mayo Clinic, but he's also a governor with the World Economic Forum (WEF). At the group's 46th annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this month Noseworthy spoke on a WEF panel with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and others about the future of health care. In a phone interview after the discussion, Noseworthy talked about Mayo's work for Medicare's value-based purchasing program on hip and knee surgeries, and whether the developing world can benefit from lessons learned in expensive health care systems in developed nations like the U.S.
James E. Taylor, Ph.D., will join UPMC as its new chief diversity and inclusion officer beginning March 14. Dr. Taylor will lead UPMC's efforts to continue as an employer, provider and insurer that reflects and embraces the rich diversity of the Pittsburgh region in both employment and in services. With experience in diversity and inclusion in health care, Dr. Taylor is particularly interested in advancing a diversity agenda that responds to the demography of western Pennsylvania. A native of the northeast, he is looking forward to exploring a new city that reminds him of home.
As the fight between the state's largest health insurer and a group of hospitals heats up, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey has sued two hospitals. The insurance giant claims public comments by Holy Name Medical Center and The Valley hospital in Ridgewood imply coverage by its new OMNIA policies is somehow deficient or dangerous. "Holy Name Medical Center and The Valley hospital have run a false and misleading ad campaign claiming, among other things, that our company 'couldn't care less' about babies," Horizon spokesman Tom Vincz said Saturday.
Central Ohio's nonprofit hospitals receive hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks each year. But the traditional justification for those exemptions is fading rapidly. For decades, caring for the poor without expectation of payment served as the primary basis for tax breaks provided to hospitals. But Ohio's Medicaid expansion has shaken that foundation, reducing the charity-care burden by nearly half in just two years, a "Dispatch" analysis found. The amount of charity care provided at central Ohio's four hospital systems dropped to $107 million in their most recent fiscal year from $194 million two years earlier. Net community benefit stayed virtually unchanged at $651 million.
A California hospital has been fined $86,000 after a surgeon left a towel in a patient's stomach during surgery. The patient was treated at Community Regional Medical Center in Fresno in 2014 and weeks after the procedure, and he said he felt like he was dying. It appears that doctors were keeping count of medical tools used during surgeries, but not the blue towels. The hospital has changed its protocol after it nearly cost a patient his life. KFSN legal analyst Tony Capozzi says the payout may end in far more than the $86,000 fine imposed by the state.