When President Barack Obama delivered the State of the Union last week, he talked about American values—the idea that if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to make a good life for yourself and family, and have something left for retirement. Part of those values is the promise of Medicare that older Americans won't have to spend the last part of their lives worrying about going broke from a hospital bill. Today, I am visiting Tampa to talk about how the 2010 health care law, the Affordable Care Act, is strengthening that promise.
UMass Memorial Health Care, which lost money in the last three months of 2011 amid shrinking patient volume, told its employees yesterday that it will shed 700 to 900 jobs, about 6 percent of its workforce, through a combination of layoffs at its flagship hospital and selling divisions that provide health services. The health care system, which operates UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester and four community hospitals, is the largest employer in central Massachusetts, with about 13,500 workers.
KHN's Mary Agnes Carey talks with Jackie Judd about the congressional conference committee trying to hammer out a bargain on a payroll tax cut extension and the Medicare "doc fix." If the conferees—who are now discussing the possibility of a permanent "doc fix"—fail to agree to a proposal, doctors who see Medicare patients are in line for a 27 percent cut slated to take effect in March.
Since April, drugmaker Allergan, best known for its wrinkle-fighting drugs Botox and Juvederm, has been posting on its website the payments it made to physicians for promotional speaking and consulting and the value of meals it provided to them. But the Irvine, CA, company recently removed all except the most recent payments from its website, erasing the record of those it had paid to help market its products from the third quarter of 2010 to the second quarter of last year.
UPMC treated more patients and signed up more insurance customers in the last three months of 2011, which pushed revenue for the nonprofit up 15 percent. But growth came at a cost, as Western Pennsylvania's dominant hospital system on Wednesday reported lower operating income for the quarter, because of rising expenses. Robert DeMichiei, UPMC's chief financial officer, said that UPMC is growing even as the overall market for medical procedures is shrinking.
St. Joseph Medical Center has narrowed its search for a strategic partner to three, the hospital said Wednesday. The troubled hospital did not identify the finalists, but several sources with knowledge of the process confirmed that the potential buyers are LifeBridge Health, which owns Sinai and Northwest hospitals; Ascension Health, which owns St. Agnes Hospital; and the University of Maryland Medical System.