Underscoring a persistent complaint about Obamacare coverage, a California regulator found that two major health insurers violated state law and significantly overstated the availability of doctors on their new health-law policies. More than 25% of physicians listed by Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California were not taking Covered California patients or they were no longer at the location listed by the companies, according to state reports released Tuesday. The results of the five-month investigation come just as the second year of open enrollment begins and more than 1.2 million Californians are shopping in the state's insurance exchange.
Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Sloan Gibson visited VA hospitals in Nashville and Murfreesboro this week, saying his appearance was not a "one and done" tour as he pledged to keep scrutiny on efforts to correct failures in quality care and to shorten wait times for patient appointments. Gibson said the agency has to rebuild trust in the wake of a government audit and national scandal about veterans being denied access to timely care. "We don't expect anybody to give it back," he said. "We have to earn it back." The Tennessee Valley Healthcare System reported some of the longest wait times in the nation, particularly for new patients needing to see specialists.
Steward Health Care System has agreed to keep the struggling Quincy Medical Center open as late as Feb. 4 to comply with a state law that requires hospitals to give 90 days' notice and hold a public hearing before closing. Additionally, Attorney General Martha Coakley's office said Tuesday it has offered to negotiate with Steward Health Care System over its plans to close the Quincy Medical Center despite an agreement the health care firm had with the attorney general's office to keep the hospital open through at least 2017. When Steward bought Quincy Medical Center out of bankruptcy in 2011, it agreed to keep the hospital open for at least 6½ years and give 18 months' notice if it had to close.
Three years ago, Jeopardy fans got to see Watson, IBM's supercomputer,beat two human Jeopardy champions to take a $1 million prize. Watson's skill at the game derived not just from its computing power but from its ability to process huge amounts of data rapidly. The next year, IBM and the Cleveland Clinic announced that Watson was turning to more serious pursuits and had "enrolled" in medical school. It's been a productive partnership: Last month, they launched a new Watson program using genomic data to find the best options for cancer patients. Watson's venture into healthcare is part of a new movement to data-driven medicine.
Community Health Systems is selling a Texas hospital to California-based Prime Healthcare Services, the second deal between the two companies this month. CHS took over Dallas Regional Medical Center in Mesquite, an eastern suburb of Dallas, through its acquisition of Health Management Associates in January. The sale of the 202-bed hospital is expected to close in the first quarter of 2015. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Dallas Regional is the third hospital Franklin-based CHS has divested in six weeks. Earlier this month, Prime Healthcare also agreed to buy Riverview Medical Center in Gadsden, Alabama, from CHS, as well as a Nevada hospital from Iasis Healthcare.
The United States is facing a critical shortage of doctors that could seriously jeopardize the ability of a patient to get medical care in the coming years. Or, at least, that's the message the medical community has been pushing for several years now. And the media (including this reporter) have swallowed the line without much question. But is the shortage real? Not necessarily, say a growing number of health economists and analysts. The most widely publicized prediction of a looming crisis comes from the Association of American Medical Colleges , which has said that by 2025, the U.S. will be short roughly 130,000 doctors.