Care New England, Rhode Island’s second largest hospital network, and Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island announced Monday morning that they have signed a letter of intent, reaffirming the benefits of a new partnership. Exclusive discussions between the two nonprofit hospital entities began in June, with the goal of exploring the creation of an integrated delivery network as the business model for healthcare shifts toward a population-based, global payment system. The letter of intent was approved unanimously by both boards and signed by Dennis D. Keefe, president and CEO of Care New England and Arthur DeBlois III, interim president and CEO of Memorial Hospital.
Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, said he would keep health insurance coverage for people with pre-existing conditions even as he vows to replace President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law on the first day of his presidency. "I'm not getting rid of all of health-care reform. Of course there are a number of things that I like in health-care reform that I'm going to put in place," Romney said on NBC’s "Meet the Press." "One is to make sure that those with pre-existing conditions can get coverage."
Although the law has failed to cut medical debt, some analysts say it may have prevented an increase in Massachusetts. Of more than 3,000 Massachusetts adults surveyed in fall 2010—the most recent survey data available—17.5 percent reported having problems paying medical bills in the previous year. Twenty percent said they were carrying medical debt and paying it over time. Those figures changed slightly from 2006, but researchers said the difference was not statistically significant. The figures are from a report released earlier this year by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation.
A Portsmouth attorney says he is representing a client who claims he was infected by the hospital worker, currently jailed on charges he allegedly infected patients with hepatitis C, two years earlier than federal prosecutors have alleged. Portsmouth attorney Michael Rainboth said last night that a Baltimore veteran is his newest client, and that the man claims he was infected with hepatitis C by traveling medical technician David Kwiatkowski in Maryland in 2008—a full two years prior to when prosecutors have said Kwiatkowski tested positive for the potentially fatal liver disease in 2010.
The share of young adults without health insurance fell by one-sixth in 2011 from the previous year, the largest annual decline for any age group since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began collecting the data in 1997, according to a new report released on Monday. The estimates are drawn from a federal survey of about 35,000 households. It did not ask how the newly insured obtained coverage, but the study's author, Matthew Broaddus, a research analyst at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said the increased coverage for young people was almost certainly due to a provision in the Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act.
At Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, since mid-July, Dr. George Branovacki, an orthopedic surgeon, has performed more than a dozen knee-replacement operations with the iPod, which he said gives much more precise measurements in making incisions and placing the replacement knee. The result, he said, is less pain and swelling for patients, better range of motion and a longer life for the artificial knee. What he's using at Christ Medical Center is called Dash navigational software. The federal Food and Drug Administration approved the iPod-based technology in 2011, and Christ is the only U.S. hospital using the system, according to the company.