The chiropractors were out in force, lobbying for months to get their services included in every state?s package of essential health benefits that will be guaranteed under the new health care law. The acupuncturists were modest by comparison, ultimately focusing on a few states, like California, where they had the best odds of being included. Both efforts seem to have shown results. Most of the roughly two dozen states that have chosen their essential benefits—services that insurance will have to cover under the law—have decided to include chiropractic care in their package. Four states—California, Maryland, New Mexico and Washington—included acupuncture for treating pain, nausea and other ailments.
A new University of Florida study casts doubt on one of hospitals' primary fall-prevention measures, bed alarms, which were designed to alert medical staff when patients are getting up when they're not supposed to. The study highlights a persistent problem for hospitals and the leading cause of injury and death for adults older than 65. U.S. emergency departments treat more than 2 million such injuries a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a cost of about $30 billion. An 18-month review of nearly 28,000 patients, using 349 beds, at Tennessee Methodist Healthcare University Hospital found that the alarms did not translate into fewer falls. This happened despite medical staff training in their use and hospital promotion of them, according to the study.
Most of the 1,500 state employee layoffs scheduled for Jan. 21 at LSU hospitals across south Louisiana have been put on hold. LSU officials said Tuesday they will not proceed to Civil Service approval of plans as negotiations continue with private partners for operations of the seven hospitals under LSU's Health Care Services Division. "Since those discussions are ongoing and the partners have indicated a desire to maintain as many services as possible pending agreements that would continue, and possibly expand, such services into the future LSU HCSD has delayed much of the Civil Service layoff proposals from consideration by the state Civil Service Commission," LSU System Executive Vice President Frank Opelka wrote in an email update to legislators.
A top official in Gov. Jerry Brown's administration said Tuesday that California will begin transferring poor children into a cheaper healthcare plan on Jan. 1, despite concerns from some lawmakers and advocates that the state's plan is inadequate. California is eliminating the Healthy Families program next year and shifting nearly 900,000 children into Medi-Cal, which reimburses doctors at lower rates, in hopes of saving $73 million annually. The transition will happen gradually, starting with the easiest cases.
Maine is at the forefront in trying to improve health care for the patients who make multiple trips to the hospital an d drive up costs for everyone else, a national health care expert said Tuesday. Jeffrey Brenner, director of the Institute of Urban Health at Cooper Hospital in Camden, N.J., spoke to dozens of Maine health care providers during a meeting at Maine General's Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care. "Maine is on the cutting edge of trying to figure this out," he said. "There's a real sense of collaboration and teamwork in Maine."
Nine nurses and supervisors were shown the door when they arrived for work at the South Central Kansas Medical Center on Monday after they were laid off. In a letter sent to all employees, administrators laid part of the blame for the cost cutting move on Obamacare. "With the Affordable Care Act being rolled out and many outside forces demanding accountability for improved outcomes and better systems for healthcare, we have to make changes or we will not survive," the letter reads. Seven of the laid off workers were full-time employees. One was part-time and the other was an on-call worker.