As the nation's economic slump continues, growing numbers of uninsured patients are straining community health facilities such as the Family Health Centers and Park DuValle Community Health Center, which between them operate 10 clinics in Louisville and one in Taylorsville. Officials of both organizations said visits by such patients rose 20 percent from 2007 to 2010 and now constitute more than half of their patient base.
UPMC filed motions Friday accusing West Penn Allegheny Health System of refusing to comply with a discovery request in the latter's antitrust lawsuit against the former. West Penn sued UPMC and Highmark in 2009, saying they colluded to stifle competition. West Penn then released Highmark from the suit when the insurer essentially bought the region's second-largest hospital system.
Dr. Richard Young wants to revamp the rules for family medicine to create an environment in which doctors have more time to get to know their patients. He believes that would improve primary care and save on emergency care spending.
He sketched out a proposal that resulted in his being selected as the only Texan to serve as an advisor to a new federal innovation center under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
From 2005 to 2010, the MetroHealth System's police department regularly arrested and detained people—even though it lacked the legal authority to do so. The health system calls its four dispatchers and nearly 60 state-trained peace officers and security guards "a full-service police department." But they are not police. The department lost its power to arrest and detain people when the city amended an ordinance granting that right in 2004.
Florida regulators are kicking out more medical practitioners who break the rules—from pill-mill doctors to health-care fraudsters to those having sex with patients. This follows long-time criticism that Florida is too easy on doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other professionals. The state's first-year health secretary, Dr. H. Frank Farmer Jr., said he has made it a top priority to yank the licenses of those who commit crimes and other serious violations.
Two months ago, a small number of doctors in Florida received an unsigned letter from CVS/pharmacy informing them that the company's pharmacists would no longer fill prescriptions they write for painkillers and other powerful, addictive drugs. The letter, which some have referred to as a "blacklist," has been criticized as discriminatory, and at least one Orlando doctor is firing back with legal action, claiming CVS has essentially pegged him as a criminal.