A few weeks ago, Arkansas put forward an unusual plan to expand Medicaid: It would use the health law dollars to buy private insurance for some 210,000 Arkansans expected to be covered under the program. Now, about a half-dozen states are considering something similar. The approach could end up covering millions of Americans and may win over some of Obamacare's staunchest opponents. But there's always been one big policy question hanging over Arkansas plan: How much would it cost? The Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that private insurance plans cost about 50 percent more than the public program, $9,000 vs. $6,000 in 2022 dollars.
Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl announced today that the city would challenge the tax exempt status of regional medical giant UPMC, a court battle that he likened to "the David versus the Goliath." "They're not a charity," the mayor said at a press conference today. "They haven't been operating as a charity and it's time that this community step up in that regard. The reality of the situation is the taxpayers ... are currently subsidizing UPMC's non-profit status." The mayor said he was emboldened to make the challenge by a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision last year that reaffirmed tax-exempt organizations must meet five criteria outlined in a previous court case, including one that requires them to operate without profit motive.
Employees at one of the nation's largest drugstore chains must disclose personal health information -- including their weight -- or pay a $600-a-year fine, according to a published report. CVS Caremark Corp. is requiring workers to reveal the information to their company's insurance carrier or pay an extra $50 a month for health coverage, according to the Boston Herald. CVS could not immediately be reached for comment. But a spokesman told the newspaper that "our benefits program is evolving to help our colleagues take more responsibility for improving their health and managing health-associated costs."
Finding out what dying patients want and treating them accordingly leads to happier patients who are in less pain and who use fewer healthcare dollars, UCLA researchers said Tuesday. "You can improve care while reducing costs by making sure that everything you do is centered on what the patients want, what his or her specific goals are and tailor a treatment plan to ensure we provide the specific care he or she wants," Dr. Jonathan Bergman, a Robert Wood Johnson clinical scholar at UCLA, said in a statement. Bergman and colleagues wrote an article advocating for patient-centered care at the end of life in the journal JAMA Surgery.
FLINT (WWJ/AP) - Documents show a Michigan hospital agreed to pay an undisclosed amount of money as part of a settlement following an accusation that it granted a man's request that no black nurses care for his newborn. The settlement agreement was released Tuesday by Hurley Medical Center in Flint following a request from The Flint Journal. The suit was filed by nurse Tonya Battle, who alleged a note was posted on an assignment clipboard reading, "No African American nurse to take care of baby." According to the settlement, Hurley agreed to pay Battle, as well as two other women who were not named as plaintiffs in the original lawsuit, a monetary amount the sides agreed upon during a meeting on Feb. 21. The dollar amount was not disclosed.
Dr. Frank Dumont knew one of his favorite patients was getting depressed. When Dumont first started seeing him, the man was in his 70s. He was active and fit; he enjoyed hiking into his 80s. But then things started to change. "He started complaining of his memory starting to slip," Dumont says. The man would forget where he had placed objects, and he'd struggle to remember simple words and phrases. Dumont prescribed antidepressants and saw him every eight weeks or so. "He was one of those people where you see them on the schedule for the day and you just smile," Dumont says. "You just realize you get a chance to chat with someone who feels like a friend."