U.S. hospital admissions in November were the weakest in more than a decade, under pressure from a change in reimbursement rules for Medicare patients and confusion tied to the problem-ridden rollout of Obamacare, according to a survey by Citi Research. New billing rules for the Medicare program for the elderly and disabled require hospitals to treat patient stays lasting less than "two midnights" as an outpatient visit. "In addition, it is reasonable to conclude that the cumulative impact of changing physician employment and payment models is beginning to play a role, as well as the paralyzing effect of the impotent Obamacare rollout," Citi analyst Gary Taylor said in a report.
In a major departure from industry practice, GlaxoSmithKline, the sixth-largest global drug maker, announced Tuesday that it will no longer hire doctors to promote its drugs. The company also will stop tying compensation for sales representatives to the number of prescriptions written for drugs they market. The changes will be made worldwide over the next two years. The New York Times broke the news late Monday. But the company said it will continue to pay doctors for research, consulting and "market research." It will also continue to provide unsolicited funding for continuing medical education activities run by "independent" groups.
A threat to America's health insurance overhaul has been that young people would not buy coverage in new marketplaces, possibly pushing the program into a disastrous spiral of falling enrollment and rising premiums. But this worst-case scenario is looking more far-fetched, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, which sees just slight increases in premiums in 2015 even though enrollment of younger people so far is well below the Obama administration's target. Preliminary figures suggest roughly a quarter of Americans signing up to buy insurance under the policy have been between the ages of 18 and 34, below the administration's target of roughly 40 percent.
The federal government for the first time is tracking the outcomes of hip and knee replacement surgeries, and it's naming names. An analysis by the Medicare program identifies 95 hospitals where elderly knee and hip surgery patients were more likely to suffer significant setbacks. The list includes two St. Louis-area hospitals, Des Peres Hospital and Mercy Hospital St. Louis, which both had high readmission rates. Medicare also named 97 hospitals where patients tended to have the smoothest recoveries. Barnes-Jewish Hospital, which scored better than average for complications, is the only St. Louis-area hospital included.
The chief of Minnesota's health insurance marketplace resigned Tuesday after facing criticism over the troubled rollout and a questionably timed international vacation. April Todd-Malmlov submitted her resignation during an emergency closed session of the government board of MNsure, Minnesota's version of the insurance exchange that's tied to the federal health care overhaul. She had been under increasing pressure over insurance sign-up problems and failed to get a vote of confidence from Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton last week. Scott Leitz, an assistant commissioner at the state Department of Human Services with more than a decade of high-level health care experience, was named interim chief executive while a search for a permanent leader is conducted.
Benefis Health System, the largest private employer in Great Falls, and Sanford Health, the largest private employer in North Dakota and South Dakota, announced a strategic alliance to collaborate on clinical initiatives, physician recruitment and services, information technology, quality programs, research potentials and health care cost reduction. Both organizations will remain independent, and the alliance will not change the governance, ownership or financial structure of either organization, according to a news release from Benefis. The alliance will have no impact on total employment at Benefis, which has more than 2,800 personnel, said Karen Ogden, chief communications officer at Benefis.