Columbus Regional Healthcare System, with the launch of its new "corporate identity," said it is changing or altering the names of its three hospitals and replacing the tagline it has used for years. The Medical Center becomes Midtown Medical Center, Hughston Hospital will be Northside Medical Center and the third facility is now Doctors Specialty Hospital. The signage is expected to be changed by the end of this year or early 2014. The current tagline, "Your Health. Our Mission," also is being replaced with "Pursue Your Healthy," a reference to a new focus on helping residents in the area live healthier lives and minimize the need for hospitalization, said Chuck Stark, president and chief executive officer of Columbus Regional Health.
Hilton Head Hospital allegedly paid kickbacks to an island clinic that directed expectant mothers living in the U.S. illegally to the hospital as way to increase revenue from Medicaid, according to a recently unsealed federal whistle-blower lawsuit. The lawsuit names Hilton Head Hospital as a defendant, saying that a Medicaid fraud scheme at several hospitals in the Atlanta area also involved the island hospital. Georgia has filed a lawsuit that parallels the federal suit and seeks to recover Medicaid money funneled through the state. A spokesman for S.C. Attorney General's Office said Thursday it was unaware of the federal lawsuit and has no plans for action against Hilton Head Hospital.
The University of Virginia Health System is home to a program that may be essential to solving the health-care-access problem in the U.S. The program is centered around telemedicine, or the use of electronic communication to exchange medical information either from patient to physician or between doctors. Through the UVA system's Center for Telehealth, physicians from 40 specialties partner with 108 community hospitals, free clinics, schools and more to provide nearly 33,000 people with care they otherwise wouldn't be able to acquire.
The dying Interfaith Medical Center still has a faint heartbeat, thanks to a sympathetic bankruptcy judge. Supporters of the Bedford-Stuyvesant hospital had argued in federal court that the state moved ahead with its plan to close the cash-strapped institution without a legally obligated 90-day review — and state officials ultimately concurred Monday that "the closure plan does not yet meet the department's requirements." The bankruptcy court ultimately agreed, delaying a shut-down that had been slated to begin Monday. But the ruling will likely only slow the inevitable. The hospital is losing more than $1.5 million a month, records show, and its 1,544 doctors, nurses and other staffers will be laid off on Sept. 11.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. Jennifer Webb works the deli counter at Publix supermarket and has thyroid problems. Her boyfriend, William May, is an artist recovering from colon cancer. The couple has relied on a county program that provides health coverage to the working poor. But their "security blanket," as Webb calls the Alachua County CHOICES program, is being taken away at the end of December. As new coverage provisions take effect Jan. 1 under the Affordable Care Act, the new health care law, local programs that offered barebones care to the uninsured are in flux – and with them, the lives of thousands who depend on them.
The House passed a bill Thursday to ban new subsidies to help people buy health insurance until the Obama administration enacts a new verification system to ensure benefits go only to those who are eligible. Democrats say the bill, which has no chance in the Democratic-controlled Senate, would unnecessarily delay subsidies slated to start next year. The White House has threatened a veto. Thursday's vote was the 41st by House Republicans to repeal, de-fund or change the health care law since it was passed in 2010 without a single Republican vote. A few changes have been enacted, but the effort has largely been unsuccessful.