A class-action lawsuit by former St. Joseph's Hospital employees against the hospital's former parent company is expected to be settled, according to the plaintiffs' attorneys. George Cosenza and Ginny Conley, representing the plaintiffs in the class action suit, announced Saturday a settlement has been reached with Signature Hospital Corporation on the issue of the loss of accrued benefits.
The legal bees may be busy at the U.S. Supreme Court preparing for March's oral arguments over the legality of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but there's no question that health-care reform so far has been good for the major players of the health-care industry. Notwithstanding a fourth quarter that was less profitable than expected, health insurer WellPoint Inc. said Tuesday that it netted about $2.6 billion in 2011, the first full year since the Affordable Care Act became law. A week earlier, UnitedHealth Group Inc., the nation's largest health insurance provider, said it took in more than $100 billion in 2011 and had more than $5.1 billion left in net income.
Mercy Medical Center Des Moines is reorganizing its administrative structure effective on Feb. 1 to give physicians more control, responsibility and accountability. "The current structure is very hospital-centric and less physician-centric," said Mercy chief executive David Vellinga. The new structure places seven physicians in lead roles where they will partner with non-medical administrators to develop strategy and ensure proper delivery of medical care and services at the hospital. In the past, Vellinga said, two physicians had responsibilities for the organized medical staff, but they played limited roles in strategy and development of services.
Mitt Romney's opponents say his Massachusetts health care law is so similar to President Obama's that he'll be unable to draw distinctions as the GOP's presidential candidate, but a new poll out last week finds that voters don't see the two laws the same. The results of the Kaiser Family Foundation survey bode well for Mr. Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, who has walked a fine line as he tried to defend his own legislation while painting the president's as destructive. Of Republicans who were familiar with the Massachusetts and national laws, 62 percent said they see Mr. Obama's law as different from Mr. Romney's law, while 38 percent said the two laws were similar.
As health costs rise, employers are increasingly turning to high-deductible health plans: Insurance coverage that usually pairs catastrophic coverage with a health savings account, leaving consumers to decide what to spend that account on. The goal is to give consumers more incentives to not spend on the care they don't need, but these plans often raise concerns that subscribers will cut back on the care that they do need, too. A new study from a team of Harvard researchers explores how health insurance plans with high deductible effect the care that families do, and don't, seek.
America may be a technology-driven nation, but the health care system's conversion from paper to computerized records needs lots of work to get the bugs out, according to experts who spent months studying the issue. Hospitals and doctors' offices increasingly are going digital, the Bipartisan Policy Center says in a report released Friday. But there's been little progress getting the computer systems to talk to one another, exchanging data the way financial companies do. "The level of health information exchange in the U.S. is extremely low," the report says.