Louisiana's health chief Bruce Greenstein on Tuesday blasted LSU for "irresponsible" cuts to its hospital operations and lack of planning to offset their impact. Greenstein also said LSU overspending—not Gov. Bobby Jindal's midyear budget cuts—is responsible for the reductions. "They got their budget and a whole lot more money," Greenstein said. "They were spending at a rate that would have put them above it." LSU's top officials refused Tuesday to respond to Greenstein's accusations.
Atlanta Medical Center and financially ailing South Fulton Medical Center announced Wednesday that they will seek state permission to consolidate the two hospitals. Both hospitals are owned by the Tenet Healthcare Corp. The 338-bed South Fulton Medical Center in East Point has been losing millions of dollars annually in recent years, according to reports filed with the state.
If you think Pittsburgh's health insurance landscape has changed dramatically in the last year, you ain't seen nothing yet, according to six of the region's top insurance executives. Expect more friction between physicians and health plans as insurers try to wring what they call unnecessary procedures, scans and surgeries out of the system.
The ousted CEO of beleaguered Wyckoff Heights Medical Center had the hospital buy a $33,000 stretch limo for his use and expensed multiple $300 staff dinners, the man brought in to replace him revealed. "My predecessor spent an enormous amount of money," Ramon Rodriguez, interim CEO of the debt-burdened Bushwick hospital, told the Daily News Wednesday.
Fourteen hospitals in New York and six other states agreed to pay more than $12 million in total to settle allegations that they submitted false claims to Medicare, the U.S. Justice Department said. Four hospitals affiliated with Adventist Health System/Sunbelt Inc. in Florida will pay the largest sum, $3.9 million, according to an e-mailed statement by the Justice Department. Plainview Hospital in Plainview, New York, will pay $2.3 million, the largest single hospital payment, the agency said.
Negotiators for Jackson Health System and SEIU Local 1991 agreed Tuesday to a contract that calls for $52 million in concessions for each of the next three years, but workers could get some of that money back if they find ways of saving the hospitals money or gaining new revenue. The tentative agreement will be voted on next week by the bargaining units covering nurses and other healthcare professionals. A third unit, covering physicians, was still in discussions with management late Tuesday afternoon.