A nurse is suing a South Charleston hospital claiming she was forced to get a flu shot or risk losing her job, even though she says she is severely allergic to the vaccine. Susan Dean says in a lawsuit filed last week in Kanawha County Circuit Court that she is now disabled because Herbert J. Thomas Memorial Hospital, her employer of more than 30 years, required her to prove she is allergic to the flu vaccine -- when staff there should have known. Dean's lawsuit asks that in addition to her being awarded damages, medical professionals be required to undergo training to deal with employees' allergic to the vaccine.
Patient advocacy groups say health insurers are violating ObamaCare by discriminating against those with chronic diseases, and the groups are forcing the administration to respond. A Health and Human Services spokesperson cited by The Associated Press says a response is nearly prepped for advocacy organizations fighting AIDS, leukemia, epilepsy and other diseases. Groups such as the National Health Law Program and the AIDS Institute have filed complaints with the administration claiming insurers are in violation of the Affordable Care Act's provisions that prevent them from discriminating against people with pre-existing conditions and chronic diseases.
Medicare Advantage plans — private plans that serve as alternatives to the traditional, public program for those that qualify for it — underperform traditional Medicare in one respect: They cost 6 percent more. But they outperform traditional Medicare in another way: They offer higher quality. That's according to research summarized recently by the Harvard health economists Joseph Newhouse and Thomas McGuire, and it raises a difficult question: Is the extra quality worth the extra cost? It used to be easier to assess the value of Medicare Advantage. In the early 2000s, Medicare Advantage plans also cost taxpayers more than traditional Medicare. It also seemed that they provided poorer quality, making the case against Medicare Advantage easy.
Parkland Memorial Hospital once again has placed a patient at "immediate jeopardy" of harm that could cost the Dallas County facility its future government funding. Although details of the case were not released, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services notified Parkland Thursday that immediate improvements must be made or the hospital will lose its Medicare funding on Sept. 6. "Unless the immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety is removed, the Medicare agreement with your hospital will be terminated," said the letter sent to Dr. Fred Cerise, Parkland's chief executive officer. Parkland "no longer meets the requirements of participation in the Medicare program because of deficiencies that represent immediate jeopardy to patient health and safety," stated the letter, signed by Ginger Odle, manager of CMS' enforcement branch.
As more Americans gain insurance under the federal health law, hospitals are rethinking their charity programs, with some scaling back help for those who could have signed up for coverage but didn't. The move is prompted by concerns that offering free or discounted care to low-income uninsured patients might dissuade them from getting government-subsidized coverage. If a patient is eligible to purchase subsidized coverage through the law's online marketplaces but doesn't sign up, should hospitals "provide charity care on the same level of generosity as they were previously?" asks Peter Cunningham, a health policy expert at Virginia Commonwealth University.
It's hard work trying to get people to sign up for health insurance when their care is mostly free to them. Andrea Thomas is working to get Alaska Natives in Sitka, Alaska, to do just that. She's the outreach and enrollment manager at SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC), and it's her job to sign people up for health insurance coverage through exchanges created as a result of the Affordable Care Act. To get a sense of just how uphill Thomas's battle is, consider this: Of the more than 100,000 people who live in Alaska and self-identify as Alaska Native or American Indian, only 115 had signed up for health insurance through an Affordable Care Act exchange as of March 31.