The union that represents 1,200 El Camino Hospital workers formally kicked off an effort Wednesday to qualify a measure for the November ballot that would slash the pay of the health care provider's top brass. The proposed measure stands to affect as many as nine executives who each make more than $200,000 a year, not counting bonuses. One of the top earners is recently appointed CEO Tomi Ryba, who is to be paid at least $695,000.
Like it or not, healthcare reform is coming to Texas, and it's dragging health insurance into the modern age. In this state, lawmakers and businesses embrace the mantra of free markets and low regulation. Regulators don't have the authority to reject increases in health insurance premiums. They didn't even bother with a rate review unless an increase topped 50 percent a year—a threshold that speaks volumes about the role of limited government here.
An executive of Riverside General Hospital was arrested and charged Wednesday in a $116 million Medicare scheme involving kickbacks to patient recruiters and the owners of homes for the elderly and disabled in exchange for steering residents to Riverside's mental health clinics.
So how pressing is the need for more minority doctors? It turns out the physician workforce is a far way from reflecting the diversity of the general population. While 1 in 8 Americans is African American, only 1 in 15 doctors is. And though 1 in 6 Americans identifies as Hispanic/Latino, only 1 in 20 doctors does. (For more detailed diversity data, check out the 2010 U.S. Census and the American Medical Association's Diversity in the Physician Workforce: Facts and Figures 2010.)
Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare has sold its stake in Affinity Health System to Ministry Health Care. Affinity operates hospitals in Appleton, Oshkosh and Chilton, and the deal creates a health system with more than $2 billion in revenue, and more than 12,000 employees.
Several large U.S. health insurance companies, including Aetna, WellPoint and UnitedHealth Group, currently offer mobile apps that help members find network providers and perform other simple functions. On the surface, these apps strengthen connections with members and providers. However, the mobile health revolution holds deeper implications for the insurance industry, which plans to enhance future mobile offerings to more directly impact patient health, according to the American Medical Association.