Rahab's Rope would like to offer its employees health insurance, but as a small nonprofit organization, the Gainesville ministry is finding it hard to offer that benefit. "I'm always a big proponent of insurance," said David Moore, the organization's chief operating officer. "I don't care how much it costs or how you get it. You've got to have it. I was raised that way." So he encourages his employees to find coverage some way, with options including through their spouse's workplace or the federal health insurance marketplace, established through the Affordable Care Act.
Hospital charges are getting new attention with the pending end of contract relations between Highmark Inc. and UPMC. Highmark members who want to see UPMC doctors after Jan. 1 will have to pay a percentage of UPMC charges, which will be discounted by 40 percent. Highmark will pick up a portion of the out-of-network bills, but members will have to pay the balance of the charges, which vary among hospitals for the same service. Pricing transparency is getting new attention as employer groups seek to identify the highest quality, lowest cost doctors and hospitals. Hospital charges are a key part of comparative shopping for health care.
The San Antonio State Hospital, which provides in-patient treatment for poor, uninsured psychiatric patients who pose a danger to themselves or others, has temporarily stopped admitting new patients, mental health advocates said Thursday. Blamed on a shortage of nursing staff, the hold could last until February and have a catastrophic effect on local hospital emergency rooms, which will back up with very mentally ill patients who no longer can be transferred to SASH, according to various people knowledgeable of the system. Carrie Williams, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, which oversees SASH, confirmed the hospital has temporarily put a hold on admissions due to a nurse shortage.
Approximately 12,000 people will lose access to Boston Children's Hospital due to a contract dispute between the hospital and Boston Medical Center's insurance affiliate. The hospital and BMC HealthNet Plan, which largely works with low-income populations, had been working to settle a rate contract for the past seven months. Though the groups were close to an agreement that would have lowered rates in the summer, an even lower rate proposal from HealthNet in the fall derailed progress. Without consensus, BMC HealthNet terminated its contract with Children's, leaving thousands of patients without access to their primary care physicians or specialists.
Though it may sound like one, this is no joke: Two miniature horses trotted into a hospital. Doctors and patients did double-takes when the equine visitors ambled down long corridors in the pediatric unit at Chicago's Rush University Medical Center. Wide-eyed youngsters hooked up to IV poles stepped into hallways to get a glimpse, and kids too sick to leave their rooms beamed with delight when the little long-lashed horses showed up for some bedside nuzzling. Mystery and Lunar, small as big dogs, are equines on a medical mission to offer comfort care and distraction therapy for ailing patients. It is a role often taken on by dogs in health care settings — animal therapy, according to studies and anecdotal reports, may benefit health, perhaps even speeding healing and recovery.
In the spring of 2013, Advocate Health Care, one of the largest U.S. health systems, banished all meetings between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM and instead instituted mandatory hospital-wide leadership "huddles" to discuss safety issues. Most of these huddles take just 15 minutes and allow hospital leaders to develop situational awareness — a collective understanding of the state of operations — and report and anticipate safety events such as falls, medication errors, and delays in care. With the introduction of huddles, reports of safety events across Advocate's 12 acute-care hospitals increased by 40% (indicating improved detection) as staff members responded to leaders' commitment to safety and transparency, while safety events have continued to dramatically decrease.