The study "Nurses Working Outside of Nursing: Societal Trend or Workplace Crisis?" undertaken after a survey of registered nurses published in 2009 said more than 4 percent of 35,635 RNs from all 50 states and the District of Columbia did not work in the profession and more than 12 percent did not work at all. Nearly 45 percent of nurses who did not work were retired and more than 38 percent did not work because they had family obligations. More than 120,000 nurses now work outside the profession. They have become product developers, consultants, auditors, trainers, teachers, risk managers, authors, forensics specialists, publishers and a host of other things. Now nurses are entrepreneurs as well as healthcare professionals.
"Doctor Shortage Likely to Worsen With Health Law," read the alarming headline of a recent article in The New York Times. The article cites a study by the authoritative Association of American Medical Colleges, according to which by 2025 the nation’s demand for doctors active in patient care will be 916,000, while the projected supply is 785,400. These figures assume that the Affordable Care Act of 2010 will be implemented as intended. According to the Times article, the association has estimated that the extension of health-insurance coverage under the new law to slightly more than 30 million otherwise uninsured Americans will increase the doctor shortage by 30,000 for any future year, beginning in 2015.
WellPoint Inc. (WLP), the health insurer that's lost 18 percent of its market value over two months, is the least popular carrier among hospital executives who have to negotiate with the company, an industry survey shows. The second-biggest U.S. health plan was ranked last among the six largest for-profit insurers, undercut by low ratings for rejecting claims and fixing wrongly-denied bills. The poll of 403 executives was conducted by ReviveHealth, a communications company that works with hospitals. The showing for Indianapolis–based WellPoint was its worst in the survey's six years.
Steward Health Care System, which includes struggling Carney Hospital, will not qualify for millions of dollars in special payments under the new Massachusetts healthcare law, because legislators said they did not want to subsidize a for-profit company. The provision is one of several buried in the 350-page bill that penalize or benefit certain hospitals. The cost-control law also targets three Harvard-affiliated hospital systems—Partners HealthCare, Boston Children's Hospital, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center—to pay a one-time $60 million tax to fund health programs. Legislators rewarded three small hospitals considered too isolated or too specialized to fail: Athol Memorial, Fairview in Great Barrington, and Franciscan Hospital for Children in Boston will get boosts in Medicaid payments.
The case of a medical technologist suspected of infecting patients with Hepatitis C could boost momentum for federal legislation requiring medical imaging and radiation therapy workers to meet standards before their employers receive Medicare reimbursements. According to the American Society of Radiologic Technologists, 45 states regulate at least one type of job involving medical imaging or radiation therapy. But education and certification standards vary widely. The organization has been advocating for years for a federal law that would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to create uniform standards that hospitals would have to meet if they receive Medicare payments.
Healthcare CIOs are struggling to balance the needs to doctors and patients as they work out the governance of electronic medical records. While healthcare providers need access to information on a fast and flexible basis, patient privacy must also be preserved. Glenn Mamary, CIO of Hunterdon Healthcare System, in, Flemington, N.J., says he has worked out a series of governance policies designed to address the practical challenges he has faced while transitioning to electronic medical records. He has contended with problems such as doctors not getting sufficient access to those records, and with curious personnel looking at medical histories they should not be seeing.