A nurse is in critical condition after being brutally attacked by a patient while on duty at a Brooklyn Hospital, police said. Police said the 40-year-old male patient attacked Evelyn Lynch, 70, at Brookdale Hospital and Medical Center on Friday afternoon, allegedly beating her unconscious, WCBS 880?s Jim Smith reported. Investigators say the nurse was removing Kwincii Jones' catheter in his fifth-floor room when he knocked her to the ground and began beating her repeatedly, CBS 2?s Don Champion reported. An acquaintance of the victim told CBS 2 that a fellow nurse heard the commotion and called for help, an action that may have saved the victim's life.
A New Hampshire hospital fighting to get into Anthem's new narrow network says the insurance company submitted an incomplete application to state regulators, who then approved it without the necessary scrutiny. Frisbie Memorial Hospital in Rochester is one of 10 hospitals excluded from Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield's provider network for individual plans being sold under the federal health care overhaul law. The state Insurance Department denied Frisbie's request to reconsider its decision, but it released hundreds of documents Anthem submitted and is holding a public hearing today to explain its process. It denies the hospital's allegations of wrongdoing, as does Anthem.
Hospitals say they're caught in the middle with the government challenging medical decisions, and imposing fines under ObamaCare if they admit too many in-patients... and then the patients return. Ashley Thompson of the American Hospital Association says, "hospitals are penalized for excessive readmissions and that is for any patient that's admitted. That might be one of reasons why physicians are more cautious admitting patients to the hospital." Scott Gottlieb is a doctor and analyst at the American Enterprise Institute and serves on a board that examines physician practices at hospitals.
The recent spate of cyberattacks on retailers has scared shoppers and triggered debates on Capitol Hill about whether consumers' data is being properly protected. Despite its security flaws, the retail sector isn't the one most vulnerable to breaches. That dubious honor goes to health care. A study of all data breaches in 2013 (pdf) found that the health-care sector suffered the highest share of attacks last year, overtaking the business sector for the first time in almost a decade. The Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit organization that tracks data theft, reported that health-care organizations suffered 267 breaches last year, or 43 percent of all attacks in 2013.
Health insurers under pressure to keep premiums low are eliminating some hospitals from coverage in a cost-cutting strategy that threatens to freeze out centers that provide specialized care, limiting patient options. Left out are hospitals such as Seattle Children's, excluded from five of seven plans on Washington's state insurance exchange. The hospital, which has sued the state to be included in more plans, is struggling to get paid for care given to about 125 children since Jan. 1, when Obamacare coverage took effect, said Sandy Melzer, the facility's strategy officer.
Aetna Inc., the third-biggest U.S. insurer, reported earnings that missed analyst estimates as Medicare costs were higher than expected. Fourth-quarter earnings excluding one-time items of $1.34 a share missed by 2 cents the average of 14 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Net income almost doubled to $368.9 million, or $1 a share, from $190.1 million, or 56 cents, a year earlier, Hartford, Connecticut-based Aetna said today in a statement. Medicare costs as a percentage of premiums, known as medical-loss ratio, rose to 87.9 percent from 85.6 percent a year earlier, in part because of "underperformance in two specific Medicare product offerings," Aetna said.