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.
The group formed to oppose the now-scuttled acquisition of Christ Hospital in Jersey City by Prime Healthcare Services met in front of the hospital Tuesday urging hospital officials to seek input from the community on its pending reorganization. Monday night, hospital officials announced it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, in the wake of last week's news that Prime had withdrawn its bid to purchase the Palisade Avenue medical facility.
Malpractice findings are increasingly easy to find on websites maintained by medical boards in 19 states, but not in Minnesota, where regulators have resisted efforts to make more information available to people who want to check into the backgrounds of their doctors. The Minnesota Board of Medical Practice also doesn't disclose whether doctors have been disciplined by regulators in other states or lost their privileges to work in hospitals and other facilities for surgical mistakes and other problems—information provided in 13 other states.
Hospitals have always said there's nothing they can do to change how people behave once they leave the hopsital. But starting this October that excuse won't wash any more. As part of the new health care law, hospitals will face hefty fines for allowing too many readmissions. At University of Pennsylvania Hospital, Dr. Shreya Kangovi launched a program that focuses on the five poorest zip codes in Philadelphia—responsible for 85 percent of readmissions in the city.
Unless Congress acts, access to health care for seniors and military families will be placed in jeopardy. On March 1, physicians who treat patients with Medicare and TRICARE (the health care program for service members, retirees and their families) face an across-the-board cut of 27 percent due to a flawed formula created by Congress, writes AMA president Peter W. Carmel, MD.