President Obama's nominee to run the nation's Medicare and Medicaid agency can count on receiving more than $160,000 a year in retirement pay for the rest of her life from the country's largest private hospital chain, records show. Marilyn Tavenner, a former executive at Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), was nominated in November to be administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the agency at the heart of Mr. Obama's health care initiative. She disclosed the arrangement with her old employer in a newly filed government ethics form.
Former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy was sentenced Wednesday to 70 months in prison, which shaved a year off his previous sentence of almost seven years. His lawyer, Art Leach, said the lighter sentence could mean that Scrushy will be eligible to be transferred within one of two months from the federal prison in Beaumont, Texas to a halfway house.
Health Affairs is out with a four-year look back at Massachusetts health reform. It has some good news (coverage has gone up!) and not-so-good news (health care isn't getting any cheaper). With the Massachusetts reforms serving as the model for the federal law, it's worth taking a look at what has and hasn't worked in the Bay State reforms.
Cayuga Medical Center is paying $3.5 million to settle allegations it improperly used Medicare and Medicaid money to pay for expenses of private medical practices that employ doctors recruited to the area by the Ithaca hospital. The settlement resolves a whistleblower lawsuit filed on behalf of the state and federal governments, which alleged that the hospital recruited doctors to the area using financial agreements that violated the federal Stark Law.
Gov. Rick Scott's plan to cut about $2 billion in public funding to hospitals that care for the poor is devastating and even ridiculous, say hospital leaders who predict patient care will suffer if it is enacted. Scott's fellow Republicans in the Legislature say they don't like his plan, either. But they admit that the hospitals—which took a considerable hit last year—will face another swipe of the ax.
MetroHealth System's management announced Wednesday an unaudited $2.7 million net loss for 2011 rather than the $1.1 million net loss it warned Cuyahoga County leaders to expect earlier this year. Even so, MetroHealth's leaders said they were "positively joyful" about 2011's year-end results.