Central Maine Healthcare has filed a letter of intent with the state to take a controlling stake in Brunswick’s Parkview Adventist Medical Center, which prompted neighboring Mid Coast Hospital to file a competing proposal that would essential absorb Parkview, according to documents filed with the Department of Health and Human Services’ Division of Licensing and Regulatory Services.
Is a gun like a virus, a car, tobacco or alcohol? Yes, say public health experts, who in the wake of recent mass shootings are calling for a fresh look at gun violence as a social disease."What I'm struggling with is, is this the new social norm? This is what we're going to have to live with if we have more personal access to firearms," said Dr. Stephen Hargarten, emergency medicine chief at Froedtert Hospital and director of the Injury Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "We have a public health issue to discuss. Do we wait for the next outbreak or is there something we can do to prevent it?"
Dr. Richard Wesley has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. He lives in Seattle, with the knowledge that an untimely death is chasing him down, but takes solace in knowing that he can decide exactly when, where and how he will die. A pulmonologist and critical care physician, Wesley voted for Washington State’s Death With Dignity Act when it was on the ballot in 2008, two years after he retired. He had no idea that his vote would soon become intensely personal.
Mark Ganz, the CEO over Regence BlueCross BlueShield, one of Oregon's largest health plans, says healthcare should work more like other industries, which is why he brought executives from Nordstroms and Starbucks onto his board of directors. Not everyone appreciates Ganz's efforts. In recent years, the company once considered the conscience of the region's health insurers has steadily lost members, raised rates and become a lightning rod for complaints over slashed benefits.
Coming of age in the 1980s when Pac-Man was the newest rage, the pager has survived and evolved over three decades. It stubbornly remains a key piece of hospital communication at a time when a doctor without a smartphone has a technology dinosaur vibe. "We can have a robot assisting with surgery, yet we're still using pagers," said April Zepeda, spokeswoman for The Everett Clinic. Providence Regional Medical Center Everett has nearly a thousand pagers in use.
Investors in U.S. hospital companies can expect more scrutiny of billing practices and the medical need for expensive treatments as the federal government faces greater pressure to recoup billions in fraudulent claims, analysts said. HCA Holdings Inc., the largest for-profit hospital operator in the United States, said earlier this week that federal authorities were investigating whether heart procedures performed at some of its facilities were medically necessary.