A sweeping healthcare cost-containment bill is heading to the desk of Gov. Deval Patrick. Patrick and the Legislature are celebrating the bill, which has broad support, but is being received with more wariness and trepidation than recent major healthcare efforts, including the landmark coverage law. As we've heard again and again, tackling healthcare costs is going to be hard. Trying to hold down healthcare costs is one of those third-rail issues that many politicians won't touch. As he introduced the bill, House lead author Rep. Steve Walsh stressed that while it's projected to save $200 billion over 15 years, that's not the only goal.
Overall, patients treated in 5-star hospitals were 72% less likely to experience complications than patients treated in 1-star hospitals, the study found. Patients in 5-star hospitals were also discharged half a day earlier than patients in 1-star hospitals. The study highlights the considerable risks of bariatric surgery. The volume of bariatric surgery patients per hospital was found to be a strong indicator of the amount of risk-adjusted complications. Hospitals that treated 375 or more patients during a 3-year period had 3% fewer complications than expected. However, hospitals with the lowest patient volume had 42% more complications than expected.
As the last of $1 billion worth of health insurance rebate checks goes out to consumers this week, insurers and government officials say the new regulation may be keeping premiums lower for everyone. But it goes beyond simply lowering premiums. Insurers say they're also working to cut costs. Teresa Miller, acting director of the office of oversight for the Center for Medicare Services said insurers are investing in quality measures and equal care standards, such as using the same tests and treatments for each patient who comes in with heart disease.
A South Carolina hospital said it has notified 11 brain surgery patients that they could have been exposed to a rare brain disease through surgical instruments used on a patient who was later diagnosed with the fatal condition. Greenville Hospital System officials said the patient was found to suffer from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The CDC recommends that instruments that have come into contact with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease undergo additional sterilization procedures prescribed by the World Health Organization. In this case, because the Creutzfeldt-Jakob diagnosis wasn't known at the time of the patient's surgery, the instruments were "sterilized according to rigorous U.S. protocols" but did not undergo any extra disinfecting, a hospital spokeswoman said.
A year after a for-profit company took over Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center and vowed to shore up its finances, the hospital posted a 10 percent profit—more than four times the state average—and paid its investors $8.4 million, according to a draft financial report submitted to the state. But the audit also states that the 230-bed hospital in Secaucus defaulted on a loan and overdrew a bank account by $1 million in 2011. Employees say paychecks have bounced at least three times since December, prompting an investigation by the state Department of Labor.
The medical community in Jackson and Swain counties has renewed its call to part ways with Haywood Regional Medical Center less than three years after forging an alliance under the MedWest banner. The roots of an uprising took hold in the Jackson County medical community almost a year ago and came to a head in April when several doctors announced they were leaving, citing concerns with the hospital's direction as part of the MedWest trio. Specifically, Jackson doctors feared that Haywood would slowly usurp their own hospital's role. They claim their hospital had lost local control and that its best interests weren't being looked out for by MedWest as a whole.