Commissioners, after a lengthy discussion at their Wednesday meeting, decided to put off a vote until Dec. 5 on a measure that would send a proposal for changing oversight at the county-owned University Medical Center to the 2013 Legislature. Among other things, the proposal would allow the newly formed board to have its strategic meetings behind closed doors. Union members who work at the county-owned hospital told commissioners the secrecy of the would-be hospital board is wrong. They also worried aloud that the move was a step toward privatizing the hospital. Two people who said they represented the Latino community said having the meetings closed "would not let our constituents know what is going on."
Despite two decades of dire health warnings and threats of federal intervention, the specialty drugmakers have repeatedly staved off tougher federal oversight with the help of powerful allies in Congress. Over the years, industry friends like Tom DeLay, the former House Republican leader from Texas, have come to its defense. Even Senator Edward M. Kennedy, regarded as the strongest healthcare advocate in Congress in recent times, dropped efforts to impose new safeguards. The pharmacists known as compounders are now facing their biggest regulatory threat as they confront questions at Congressional hearings on the deadly outbreak. The question is whether Congress will move to oversee the niche industry more aggressively.
Dr. John Brennan, an emergency medicine physician and president and CEO of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in New Jersey, was officially approved by MetroHealth board members as the president and CEO of the MetroHealth System. He will begin his duties the first week of January. The hope is that he will help the public hospital maintain its charitable mission in the changing health care environment. Brennan said it was MetroHealth's mission to "serve the uninsured and underinsured" that drew him to the health system.
Last year, hackers broke into a Utah Medicaid server and stole the personal information of about 780,000 Utahns, including nearly a quarter-of-a-million Social Security numbers. In response on Wednesday, a bill requiring Utah hospitals and clinics to disclose on privacy notices their practice of sharing patients' personal information with the state cleared its first legislative hurdle. The bill would not put a halt to the billing practice. Instead, it would put patients on guard by notifying them that a given provider has, or may, share their "personally identifiable" information with Medicaid.
New Jersey healthcare officials and providers held a roundtable briefing at Jersey Shore Medical Center on Thursday to discuss professional preparedness for disasters. High on the list of post-Sandy concerns are coordination and communication. Hurricane Sandy should provide lessons in emergency response for years to come. "I see this as another opportunity for learning and seeing how we can prepare best for next year's season, or even the rest of this winter," said state Health Commissioner Mary E. O'Dowd, who attended the session.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, one of the most vocal critics of the federal health care overhaul, is dropping his staunch opposition to the law. Scott said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press that he now wants to negotiate with the federal government. He said it's time for Republicans to offer solutions to help families after they lost their bid to defeat President Barack Obama. Scott had previously stated that he would not go along with any parts of the health care overhaul that the state controls.