1.3 million Floridians can expect a rebate from their health-insurance company this summer, according to a report released Thursday from the Department of Health and Human Services. In all, health insurance plans will pay out $124 million in rebates to 736,000 Florida households by Aug. 1. The refund, which averages $168, comes courtesy of the health-care overhaul that took effect last year. The total rebate due Florida residents is the second highest in the country, bested only by Texas, where consumers and businesses can expect $167 million in rebates, according to the report's state-by-state breakdown.
The U. S. attorney's office has joined the investigation into the hepatitis C outbreak at New Hampshire's Exeter Hospital's cardiac catheterization lab.State public health officials have said they suspect a lab employee's misuse of drugs led to the outbreak. A hospital worker and 19 of the lab's patients have tested positive for the liver-destroying disease since the investigation began last month.
A rare type of deadly bacteria was found in two patients in a Rhode Island hospital in 2011, but swift treatment and infection control measures stopped any further spread, a new government report shows. The bacterium -- called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM)-producing Klebsiella pneumoniae -- is highly resistant to antibiotics and easily spread. It is rare in the United States, but more common in areas including India, Pakistan, Cambodia and other Asian countries. The report was published in this week's issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A hospital in Summit New Jersey and its parent company, Atlantic Health System, Inc., will pay almost $9 million to the federal government to settle charges it overbilled Medicare for health care provided to patients, federal officials said today. The government alleged that the Overlook Medical Center violated the False Claims Act, when, over a seven-and-a-half-year period, they fraudulently billed Medicare for inpatient services, officials said.
North Kansas City Hospital officials are reviewing their legal options in the event of a potential sale of the hospital by North Kansas City. Michael Montgomery, the hospital board’s chairman, said hospital leaders were taken completely by surprise earlier this week when it was announced that the City Council had begun investigating a potential sale of the 54-year-old public facility. He said the group plans to meet with its legal advisers Monday for more information.
Not quite open two years, Florence Community Healthcare suddenly transferred its patients to other facilities and closed its doors Monday afternoon. Entry signs to the emergency room were covered up.Initiatives spent millions to renovate the former Central Arizona Medical Center, closed since 1999, to bring the building up to date for the new Florence Community Healthcare. Meanwhile there’s still one other hospital in town, Florence Hospital at Anthem, which opened in March.