Syracuse, N.Y. - Three Central New York hospitals are prepared to pay $1.5 million each to settle lawsuits accusing them of not paying hourly employees for lunch breaks that were missed or interrupted. Employees and former employees of St. Joseph's and Crouse hospitals in Syracuse and Faxton-St. Luke's in Utica recently received notices of proposed settlements that have received preliminary approval in federal court. They have until Sept. 13 to join the lawsuits and seek payments. A Rochester law firm filed the class action lawsuits against the hospitals in 2008. The suits allege the hospitals failed to keep accurate records of time worked by nurses and other hourly employees dating back to Nov. 13, 2002.
A robotic device that crawls into lungs could help deliver vital air to patients, researchers say. Currently, intubation requires physicians to look down the throat, and choose between two very similar openings, one leading to the lungs, the other to the stomach. Researchers note that about 20 million intubation procedures are carried out every year in the United States alone. Difficult intubations, where a good view is limited, make up about 2.6 million procedures in the U.S. and cost an estimated $910 million annually.
It is one of the most common components of emergency medicine: an intravenous bag of sterile saltwater. Luckily for anyone who has ever needed an IV bag to replenish lost fluids or to receive medication, it is also one of the least expensive. The average manufacturer's price, according to government data, has fluctuated in recent years from 44 cents to $1. Yet there is nothing either cheap or simple about its ultimate cost, as I learned when I tried to trace the commercial path of IV bags from the factory to the veins of more than 100 patients struck by a May 2012 outbreak of food poisoning in upstate New York.
It is hard to know whether to rejoice or lament two striking if somewhat conflicting messages last week about the costs of employer-sponsored health insurance. An authoritative survey found that premiums for family and individual coverage at work — including both the company's and the worker's share — have gone up only moderately for the second year in a row, suggesting that health care inflation may finally be abating and that whatever costs the president's health reforms may add will be readily absorbed.
NEWARK — The new president and chief executive officer of University Hospital in Newark will earn more than $416,000 a year as the first leader of the newly independent state institution, hospital officials said. James Gonzalez was named head of University Hospital July 1 after the medical center was spun off from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey during a statewide higher education reorganization. After his appointment last month, a University Hospital spokeswoman declined to reveal Gonzalez's salary or any details about his contract. But hospital officials released the information this week after The Star-Ledger filed a request through the state's Open Public Records Act.
With a key deadline approaching, state officials across the country are scrambling to get the Affordable Care Act's complex computer systems up and running, reviewing contingency plans and, in some places, preparing for delays. Oct. 1 is the scheduled launch date for the health-care law's insurance marketplaces — online sites where uninsured people will be able to shop for coverage, sometimes using a government subsidy to purchase a plan. An estimated 7 million people are expected to use these portals to purchase health coverage in 2014. The task is unprecedented in its complexity, requiring state and federal data systems to transmit reams of information between one another.