Terry Akin has been named President and Chief Operating Officer of Cone Health. The announcement was made by Tim Rice, who will remain Chief Executive Officer. Akin joined Cone Health in July 2009. Akin previously held leadership roles at three health systems across the nation: Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas/Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC. Akin is a Fellow in the American College of Healthcare Executives. He earned an MBA at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania as well as a master's degree in social work.
Both positions are tenuous. The Republican-conservative case against the constitutionality of the individual mandate requiring health insurance belies the fact that it was long championed by those very elements. It was only when the mandate became part of Obamacare that it morphed into an unconstitutional government power grab. For two decades, until the Obama plan took shape, the individual mandate was a central tenet of Republican health care policy.
With some changes to its financing structure, the Healthy Howard Health Plan could emerge as a viable option for Americans who will not be able to afford to buy insurance should the ACA be struck down. Initiated in October 2008, Healthy Howard provides comprehensive, affordable healthcare to working-class families and individuals who have incomes higher than the eligibility level for entitlement programs like Medicaid, but still too low to afford private health insurance. Based on the primary care "medical home" model, with an emphasis on wellness and preventive services, Healthy Howard uses a local, federally qualified health center as our primary care home.
Highmark fired Dr. Kenneth Melani for "gross and willful misconduct" on April 1 because of another high-profile fight that went public. The sudden downfall of Melani, who earned $4.3 million last year, left healthcare industry experts reeling. The future of financially struggling West Penn Allegheny Health System and its 11,000 employees hangs in the balance. Highmark's fortune will be at risk if it loses subscribers to UPMC Health Plan or other insurers that will offer in-network access to UPMC hospitals and doctors when the UPMC-Highmark contract expires in 2013.
New Hampshire lawmakers are considering a variety of proposals that would affect how the state implements the controversial healthcare law or prevent participation. One bill would include New Hampshire in the federal lawsuit over the healthcare reform bill, which was heard last month in the Supreme Court, while another proposal would prohibit the state from implementing a state health care exchange. Beyond these bills, however, yet another proposal, HB 1560, would allow New Hampshire to bypass the Affordable Care Act and other federal healthcare programs. HB 1560 could allow New Hampshire to join an interstate Health Care Compact, which would enable members to enact regulations that supersede federal healthcare law.
California's prescription drug monitoring program is a real-time online database that displays a patient's prescription drug history. As attorney general, Gov. Jerry Brown promoted the online database in 2009 as a new solution to the prescription drug abuse epidemic. More than 40 states are using similar systems to help curb prescription drug abuse. But in California, the system has not put a dent in prescription drug abuse because enrollment in the drug-monitoring database program is optional. Of more than 30,000 doctors and pharmacists in the Bay Area, only 86 are signed up to use the system, according to records obtained by The Bay Citizen.