With the Disneyland measles outbreak expected to grow in the coming weeks, Bay Area hospitals and doctors' offices are preparing for new cases and a flood of questions from patients worried about getting sick. Health care providers who have never seen a case of measles also are being trained on how to recognize the illness and what to do with patients who show up in clinics or emergency rooms with suspicious symptoms. "We don't typically see measles cases, and that's required a fair amount of education of our physicians, nurses, emergency departments, so they're prepared and know what to look for," said Dr. Stephen Parodi, director of hospital operations for Kaiser Northern California.
Bowing to privacy concerns, the Obama administration reversed itself Friday, scaling back the release of consumers' personal information from the government's health insurance website to private companies with a commercial interest in the data. The administration made the changes to HealthCare.gov after The Associated Press reported this week that the website was quietly sending consumers' personal data to companies that specialize in advertising and analyzing Internet data for performance and marketing. The personal details included age, income, ZIP code, tobacco use and whether a woman is pregnant.
Janeece Cook popped in to the county health clinic on Northwest 27th Street in Corvallis Friday morning for a checkup. She wasn't sick, and it wasn't time for her annual physical, but she was a little worried she might have been exposed to the flu. The doctor checked Cook's pulse and blood pressure, listened to her breathing, asked some questions about her overall health and arranged for her to get a flu shot. But the clinic won't be sending Cook a bill for the office visit — it's already covered.
Meet four of the many faces of Obamacare — two winners and two losers — a small sample among the millions of Americans who remain divided about the benefits of the new government insurance exchanges. One year after the first health insurance marketplaces opened across the country, Health and Human Services officials say more than 185,730 Hoosiers have enrolled in health insurance. And there's still time. Open enrollment continues until Feb. 15. As a result of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, some people have health insurance for the first time. But others feel they are worse off since the legislation — dubbed Obamacare both drolly and derisively — went into effect.
Financially challenged rural hospitals are seeking out partnerships with larger medical centers or making difficult decisions about which services to scale back as they try to keep their doors open. It is a trend that accelerated in 2014 and is expected to continue this year in Western New York. Of the dozen rural hospitals in the region, nine have an affiliation agreement of some kind with a hospital system in Buffalo, Rochester or Erie, Pa., with two of the hospitals – United Memorial Medical Center in Batavia and Medina Memorial Hospital – forming the agreements in 2014.
Voters next fall may be asked to help settle a squabble over hospitals and other charities that make so much money, some believe they should no longer be tax-exempt. Lawmakers on both sides of the issue suggest that the state should re-examine whether organizations that pay top executives six- or seven-figure salaries ought to be exempt from property taxes. The trade publication Modern Health Care estimated the average compensation for 147 chief executive officers at nonprofit hospitals across the country at $2.2 million a year. "Any organization with a CEO making $2 million a year can afford to help pay for police and fire protection," said state Sen. John Wozniak, D-Cambria County.