Given that the healthcare overhaul remains a lightning rod—just last week, Oklahoma revised a lawsuit against it—even the most tentative discussions about carrying it out in Republican states tend to take place behind closed doors or "underground," as the leader of a healthcare advocacy group in the South put it. Only 13 states and the District of Columbia have formally committed to running their own exchanges. Most of the remaining states, 22 of them run by Republicans, are exploring their options. Along with Arizona, at least three of them—Mississippi, Nevada and New Mexico —have done enough planning to meet the November deadline should they decide to run their own exchanges, according to officials.
Medicare is the one health insurance plan that will cover virtually every American at some point in life, and Republican Mitt Romney is proposing the biggest changes since its creation nearly 50 years ago. With important details still hazy, The Associated Press asked the Romney campaign five questions about how his Medicare plan would affect consumers on critical matters of costs and benefits. Some of the questions remained unresolved after the campaign's responses. It may take electing Romney to find out how his plan would work.
With the future of Medicare on the line in the presidential election, The Associated Press asked the Obama campaign five questions about how his plans for seniors' healthcare would affect critical issues of costs and benefits. Unlike Romney, Obama is not calling for a major Medicare remake. Most of the president’s cost-cutting ideas are incorporated in his healthcare law, and will phase in unless Romney wins and makes good on his pledge to repeal it. Other Obama proposals are drawn from government advisory groups or bipartisan commissions seeking consensus on how to reduce deficits. AARP gave a thumbs-down to this year’s Obama budget, citing Medicare cost shifts.
The Obama administration wants consumers to report medical mistakes and unsafe practices by doctors, hospitals, pharmacists and others who provide treatment. Hospitals say they are receptive to the idea, despite concerns about malpractice liability and possible financial penalties for poor performance. Federal officials say that medical mistakes often go unreported, and that patients have potentially useful information that could expose reasons for drug mix-ups, surgery on the wrong body part, radiation overdoses and myriad other problems that cause injuries, infections and tens of thousands of deaths each year.
A lawyer seeking a class-action lawsuit against Exeter Hospital in connection with the hepatitis C outbreak said his client list has grown to 169 people, including 11 former Exeter patients who have tested positive for the virus. Attorney Peter McGrath said although most of his clients tested negative for hepatitis C, they still had to endure a gutwrenching period of time fearing they were exposed to the illness. McGrath said he hopes to present his request for class-action status at a hearing in November. He filed a complaint in Rockingham County Superior Court against the hospital in June and has since added the Nebraska-based Triage Staffing Inc.
Large nonprofit hospitals in North Carolina are dramatically inflating prices on chemotherapy drugs at a time when they are cornering more of the market on cancer care, an investigation by the Observer and The News & Observer of Raleigh has found. The newspapers found hospitals are routinely marking up prices on cancer drugs by two to 10 times over cost. Some markups are far higher. It's happening as hospitals increasingly buy the practices of independent oncologists, then charge more for the same chemotherapy in the same office. Asked about the findings, hospital officials said they are relying on a longtime practice of charging more for some services to make up for losses in others.