Key members of both parties and both chambers of Congress stand before the podium to introduce their bipartisan Medicare proposal. Insurers and health care providers welcome it. Seniors' groups are on board, too. If Congress is ever going to overhaul Medicare, it will almost certainly have to happen this way. Sen. Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat widely expected to be the next Senate Finance Committee chairman, last week led a bipartisan group of lawmakers, health care experts and seniors' advocates backing a plan to better coordinate care given to Medicare beneficiaries.
More than 100 Wisconsin hospitals have slashed health care costs by $45.6 million by reducing readmissions and controlling surgery-related infections in a special project, according the Wisconsin Hospital Association. The WHA's new report, released today, includes a shout-out to Vernon Memorial Healthcare in Viroqua. The critical-access hospital, "which has over 500 hip and knee surgeries per year, has not had an infection since November 2012," the report notes. "They achieved this impressive result through rigorous attention to use of best practice preventive measures, including a comprehensive hand hygiene campaign."
There's a grand experiment underway in Massachusetts and we are all, in theory, part of it. Here's the question: Can we actually list prices for childbirth, MRIs, stress tests and other medical procedures, and will patients, armed with health care prices, begin to shop around for where (and when) they "buy" care? One of the first steps in this experiment is a new requirement that hospitals and doctors tell patients who ask how much things cost. It took effect Jan. 1 as part of the state's health care cost control law and we set out to run a test.
Though most of LSU's charity hospitals and clinics have been turned over to private managers, federal officials still haven't decided whether they'll agree to the financing plans that are being used to pay the new hospital operators. Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration expressed confidence the deals will gain approval from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, known as CMS, but said these types of complex arrangements take time. CMS isn't talking about how far apart the two sides are in negotiating final terms. Privatization deals have taken effect for seven university hospitals and their clinics, with two more pending.
The board of directors of Natchez Regional Medical Center will review a proposal this week from a prospective buyer. "There is some development coming down, and we are going to see what it is. (Someone) has made an offer, but we don't know if we are going to accept that offer," board chairman Rev. Leroy White told The Natchez Democrat. The potential buyer has not been identified. The hospital is owned by Adams County. White said the board will meet this week with Healthcare Management Partners Chief Executive Officer Scott Phillips. HMP was hired last July to help facilitate the sale of the hospital.
The new health-care law encourages people to get the preventive services they need by requiring that most health plans cover cancer screenings, contraceptives and vaccines, among other things, without charging patients anything out of pocket. Some patients, however, are running up against coverage exceptions and extra costs when they try to get those services. Advocates and policy experts agree that more federal guidance is needed to clarify the rules. Rebecca Hyde of Woodstock, Conn., was angry when, after getting a colonoscopy to screen for cancer in December, she got a notice that her insurer was charging a hospital "facility fee" of $1,935 against her $6,000 deductible. Such fees are not uncommon for hospital-based care.