41 percent of our most basic healthcare needs, the fevers and colds we all get, are taken care of by higher-paid specialty doctors. Mount Sinai's Minal Kale lead a team of researchers that combed through data on more than 20,000 doctor visits in 1999 and 2007. All of it had information on why the individual turned up at the doctor's office, whether it was a runny nose (not so serious) or a heart attack (decidedly more serious). Their results, just published in the Archives of Internal Medicine: 59 percent of those with primary care needs, the people in the runny nose group, were seen by a primary care doctor. Forty-one percent sought out care at a specialist.
Officials at the West Virginia Health Information Network (WVHIN) announced on Wednesday the launch of two new pilots for its statewide health information exchange (HIE) system. Wheeling Hospitals and West Virginia University Healthcare are the first to go live with this new part of the statewide WVHIN HIE, a public/private partnership created in 2006 aiming to create a secure electronic health information system for the exchange of patient data among physicians, hospitals, diagnostic laboratories, other care providers and stakeholders. Working with early adopters across Medicaid, public health, and provider networks, Wheeling Hospitals and West Virginia University Healthcare (WVUH) were selected to be the first pilot sites.
BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee will partner with Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare in a five-year arrangement that will advance new care and payment models. The agreement goes into effect Jan. 1, 2013 and will focus on quality care. The new agreement with Methodist is based on three key components: Methodist will replace Baptist Memorial Healthcare System as the Network S provider in the Memphis area. Giving members access to the region's most comprehensive health system via BlueCross' most cost-efficient Network S will drive savings for customers. Each organization has committed significant resources toward the development of the framework for an accountable care organization (ACO) that will serve Memphians and others in the region.
The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice have told the U.S. Supreme Court that lower courts' misreading of the "state action doctrine" in a key hospital merger case has harmed consumers in Georgia. In a brief filed late Monday, the FTC and the Obama administration warned that if the justices validate the lower court rulings that cleared Phoebe Putney Health System Inc.'s $195 million purchase of Palmyra Park Hospital Inc. last year, there will be more anticompetitive hospital and utility acquisitions. The lower courts found that even though the merger would give Phoebe Putney 85% of the Albany, Ga., hospital market, a level that is presumptively illegal, it was permissible.
Count me among those who hope the MedWest affiliation between Haywood, Jackson and Swain hospitals survives. It's been a tumultuous four years for the hospitals in the counties west of Buncombe. Despite the bumps in the road, though, there seems now at least a path—via the management contract with Carolinas HealthCare—for the three hospitals to move into the future serving pretty much the same role in their communities they’ve been serving for decades. But by my estimation I think Haywood, Jackson and Swain counties deserve their own hospitals with their own specialists and their own medical communities. We share a lot, but each county can support its own hospital. And the best chance for that to happen is by working together.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital confirmed Wednesday that it has laid off 230 employees over the last month as part of an effort to reduce its cost structure by a quarter by 2017. The Streeterville health system, which has about 7,000 employees, said in a statement that 52 of those who lost their positions have found new jobs, most at the hospital. It said several others are being considered for roughly 200 openings. A spokeswoman said the hospital has cut jobs each of the past several years after annual reviews of its operations conducted amid budget discussions.