The Harris Health System, formerly known as the Harris County Hospital District, has just announced its plan to cut 260 jobs. Harris Health runs Ben Taub General Hospital, Lyndon B. Johnson Hospital and several health facilities in the area. Spokesman John Martinez says layoffs began last Friday and will be completed by this Friday. The jobs that have been slashed are mainly in support staff and not tied directly to patient care. Martinez says the system is facing more than a $70 million budget shortfall due to a number of factors, including less money coming in from Medicaid and an increase in the number and cost of treating patients.
Several red-state governors have dropped their opposition to Medicaid expansion in recent months and are pursuing ways to use federal dollars to fund their own more conservative plans. Governors in the solidly red states of Wyoming, Montana, Tennessee and Utah are pursuing expansion options that seek to use billions in additional federal Medicaid dollars to help low-income adults purchase private coverage or create health savings accounts. Many of the proposals, which require federal approval, also include incentives aimed at helping recipients get better jobs so that they can purchase their own coverage without government assistance.
Texas Children's Hospital on Tuesday affirmed plans to start a $506 million expansion to its flagship Texas Medical Center facility, regardless of falling oil prices and the resulting fallout for Houston's economy. Officials noted that parents of seriously ill children nationwide will still seek care at the hospital, which is moving ahead on a 19-floor project that will include a new heart center and expanded critical care, diagnostic and therapeutic services. The hospital on Tuesday revealed new details, including the cost for the project, which includes renovations to the current emergency center.
The new Parkland Memorial Hospital will officially open its doors to patients on Aug. 20, two months later than expected, the hospital announced Monday. Without explaining the delay, leaders of Dallas County's lone public county hospital said the move remained on schedule for next summer. Earlier move dates in May and June were simply targets and not confirmed move-in dates, the hospital said. A statement released by Parkland focused on how the hospital staff would move patients into the new hospital over a three-day period in mid-August. The new $1.3 billion hospital is across Harry Hines Boulevard from the current facility.
Attorney General Tim Fox has approved the sale of Community Medical Center in Missoula to a joint business venture between Billings Clinic and a Tennessee company. Fox said Monday that his Office of Consumer Protection still must sign off on the way $74.8 million received from the sale will be distributed. Because Community Medical Center is a nonprofit, the proceeds from its sale to a for-profit group must go to a foundation with a health-focused mission that serves the same area as the hospital. The hospital's board of directors submitted its proposal for distribution last month and Fox's office asked for additional time to review the plan.
Medical residents who work in under-served parts of Nebraska could receive up to $120,000 in loan repayments under a new bill in the Legislature. Sen. Kathy Campbell of Lincoln proposed a loan reimbursement program Tuesday for areas designated as having a shortage of health care professionals. The bill would largely apply to rural areas which lack doctors. The bill would let residents receive up to $40,000 a year in reimbursement, up to a maximum of $120,000. Residents would have to be enrolled or accepted into an approved medical specialty program in Nebraska.