The Nueces County Hospital District on Monday approved a new agreement expected to end its financial woes while expanding funding to local hospitals treating indigent and uninsured patients. The agreement must be ratified by Nueces County commissioners, who are expected to discuss it Sept. 5. Partly funded by taxpayer dollars, the hospital district contracts with Christus Spohn Health System to provide healthcare for indigent patients. Since the county sliced the district's tax rate years ago, the hospital district has been forced to dip into its fund balance to cover yearly budget shortfalls. The district projected it would be bankrupt by 2015 if expenses continued to outpace revenues, prompting the district to seek alternative arrangements.
Angela Braly resigned as chairman and chief executive officer of WellPoint Inc. after recent criticism from shareholders who said the second-leading U.S. insurer was underperforming. The shares rose. John Cannon, the company's executive vice president and general counsel, will serve as interim CEO while WellPoint searches for a replacement, the Indianapolis-based insurer said today in a statement. Cannon isn't a candidate for the permanent job, according to the statement. During her five-year tenure, Braly, 51, made herself a foe of the health-care overhaul and, more recently, of investors after WellPoint missed earnings estimates and cut its forecast twice in four months.
Federal officials are urging Maryland and its powerful health industry to build on the state's unique hospital rate-setting system to develop sweeping cost controls—including those on doctors—that could be used as a model for other states. The proposals could eventually affect nearly every aspect of the industry, and include rewarding doctors for cutting unneeded procedures and pledging the state to keep per-capita Medicare costs rising more slowly than those of the nation. The federal Department of Health and Human Services is "sending a message that they'd like to see more from Maryland," including a commitment to limit Medicare costs not just for hospitals but for doctors and drugs, said Baltimore healthcare lawyer Barry Rosen.
The Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality, based at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, was awarded the grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The foundation plans to award $500 million over the next 10 years for research on eliminating preventable harm in hospitals. Hopkins will put the grant toward a project aimed at reducing preventable patient harm during their hospital stay by working with engineers to create a system which can share information between the various medical devices used to treat patients in intensive care units.
Three patients treated at a northwest Kansas hospital in 2010 have tested positive for a strain of hepatitis C "closely related" to a cluster of cases in New Hampshire traced to a traveling hospital technician. Kansas officials notified more than 400 people last month that they may have been exposed to hepatitis C by a technician who worked at the Hays Medical Center's cardiac catheterization lab from May 24 to Sept. 22, 2010. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said Tuesday that 375 former Hays Medical patients had submitted blood for testing as of Aug. 27. Of that number, 353 were negative for hepatitis C. Tests on the others are pending. Another 58 patients could not be tested because they are already deceased.
Iowa hospital executives want the state to accept hundreds of millions of dollars in extra federal Medicaid money under the national health reform program. Gov. Terry Branstad plans to decline the money, which would expand Medicaid to cover about 150,000 poor Iowa adults. Branstad is skeptical that the federal government can afford to keep its promise to pay at least 90 percent of the cost. The Iowa Hospital Association board recently voted unanimously to support expansion of Medicaid. Association members plan to aggressively lobby legislators on the subject. The group said turning down the federal money could cripple hospitals.