Gov. George E. Pataki and the State Legislature created the Office of the Medicaid Inspector General to curb billions of dollars in fraud and misspending by healthcare providers. But a backlash from the politically powerful healthcare industry has erased broad support for the crackdown. Last year, amid a crescendo of provider complaints of overzealous, nitpicking audits and unfair tactics, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo quietly dismissed the state's first Medicaid inspector general, James G. Sheehan, and directed Mr. Sheehan's successor, James C. Cox, to collaborate with providers on changes to the agency's policies and auditing methods.
In a review of 11 international studies, researchers found that health providers' skills in advanced life support typically deteriorated six months to a year after training, based on test performance. That's concerning, since the standard guideline calls for re-training every two years, note the researchers, led by Dr. Matthew Huei-Ming Ma of National Taiwan University Hospital. Many experts have long believed that re-training at two-year intervals is "not optimal," said Dr. Lance Becker, director of the Center for Resuscitation Science at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. But individual medical centers are taking their own steps, he said.
Over the last two years, Dr. Neel Shah, a senior resident in obstetrics and gynecology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, has been collaborating with medical educators and health care economists at Harvard Medical School and at the Pritzker School of Medicine at the University of Chicago to create a series of videos and educational materials designed to help medical students and doctors-in-training learn to make clinical decisions that optimize both quality of care and cost. With support from the American Board of Internal Medicine, these educational modules, called the Teaching Value Project, could represent a significant breakthrough in how medical students learn to be conscious of costs.
There have been 35 criminal convictions of Massachusetts doctors since 2002. In most states, such convictions are posted permanently online; in Massachusetts, not one is listed in the state medical board databas due to physician-friendly provisions in state law, the board's policy of purging certain records, sometimes in violation of state law, and outdated technology. Over the last two decades, these routine omissions and removals have taken thousands of embarrassing records out of public view, according to a comparison by the Northeastern University Initiative of the board's records and a nationwide database maintained by the US Department of Health and Human Services.
CEO pay is up, sharply in some cases, at Indianapolis' four large hospital groups, as the systems have grown and dumped more responsibilities on their top leaders. Total pay for those CEOs rose anywhere from 15 percent to 53 percent from 2008 to 2010. While experts say the pay is in line with executive compensation at other large hospital groups, the rate of the increases far outpaces the minimal wage gains that area health-care workers (1.7 percent) and hourly workers (3.1 percent) have seen over the same time.
The stakes are higher than ever for hospitals to improve the patient experience. Starting in October, it could mean millions of dollars for hospitals as patient satisfaction for the first time is factored into how much Medicare reimburses for the care of senior citizens. And Metro Detroit hospitals are jumping into action, retraining employees in customer service and offering perks such as made-to-order room service meals and VIP lounges to cater to patients and their families.