Any new medical school faces challenges, not the least of which is collecting enough dead bodies to train its students. But thanks to the Internet and a down economy, that task is getting easier. For all the advances in medical training, there's still no substitute for the human cadaver. And with Quinnipiac University's new medical school, the Frank H. Netter MD School of Medicine, scheduled to begin classes in the fall, educators there are seeking donations. "We need roughly about 40 to 50 bodies a year," said Jim Casso, director of Quinnipiac University's human anatomy laboratory.
Wonder why you can't get a straight answer on how much a health care procedure will cost you? One big reason: State laws which allow hospitals and other providers to keep costs hidden until they send you the bill. A report card on price transparency released today gives 29 states an "F" and seven states a "D" for policies that keep patients and their families in the dark on prices. The failing grade went to those with practically no transparency requirements. Only two states, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, rate an "A," and even they could improve their laws, according to the report by the Catalyst for Payment Reform.
As the healthcare industry gears up to comply with new Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulations, set to take effect March 26, providers are looking for guidance on how broader patient-privacy rules could affect their businesses, said Nixon Peabody healthcare partner Linn Freedman. The Department of Health & Human Services in January announced an expansion of the 1996 act, which provided privacy and security protections for patients' health information. The new regulations gives patients greater protections by broadening the definition of health-information privacy, making providers responsible for proving that a breach caused no harm and raising the penalties for violators to a maximum of $1.5 million per infraction.
The chairman and CEO of LifePoint Hospitals offered his leadership advice to more than 500 local business leaders who made their bleary-eyed way to Lipscomb University early this morning for the quarterly Nashville Business Breakfast. Carpenter spoke to the future of the health care industry, which is seeing increasingly compressed margins and pressure from the government and public to be more efficient. In 10 years, Carpenter said, he hopes health care is about keeping people out of the hospital, a seemingly counterintuitive statement coming from a man whose job is to run hospitals.
A hospital is, by its nature, the scene of constant life-or-death situations. It's the work we nurses, doctors and other health professionals do; we chose it. The threat of harm can jazz you up or bring you down, but what it should demand, always, is the highest possible level of professionalism. Who's at risk when that doesn't occur? This isn't about hurt feelings or bruised egos. Modern health care is complex, highly technical and dangerous, and the lack of flexible, dynamic protocols to facilitate communication along the medical hierarchy can be deadly.
The time patients spend in waiting rooms at their physician's office may soon be shorter, because the wait for one simple, commonsense health care reform in Michigan may soon be over. Michigan lawmakers are considering legislation that would eliminate redundant prior authorization forms for prescribing certain drugs. These forms create a significant administrative burden that delays patient care, increases patient wait times, and limits the amount of time Michigan physicians and their staffs can spend directly with patients addressing their health needs.