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.
After pulling back spending in recent years, some Connecticut hospitals are significantly increasing their advertising budgets as they try to compete for market share amid a changing and increasingly competitive health care environment. Connecticut's 30 acute care hospitals pumped nearly $30 million into advertising spending in fiscal year 2010, an 18 percent increase from a year earlier, a Hartford Business Journal analysis of industry financial data has found.
Many American hospitals offer a V.I.P. amenities floor with a dedicated chef and lavish services, from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, which promises "the ultimate in pampering" in its $3,784 maternity suites. The rise of medical tourism to glittering hospitals in places like Singapore and Thailand has turned coddling and elegance into marketing necessities, designers say.
The court of public opinion may hold more sway than the court of law as country music singer Garth Brooks is slated to take the stand Monday morning for a second day of testimony in his lawsuit against Oklahoma's largest health care system. Brooks claims he anonymously donated $500,000 in December 2005 because he had a deal with Yukon hospital president James Moore to build a women's center that would honor his mother, who died of cancer in 1999. Moore previously testified that he did not discuss such a deal with Brooks.
St. John's Medical Center acting CEO John Kren was charged with DUI earlier this month after allegedly flipping his truck and later being arrested in the hospital's emergency room. According to the probable cause statement by Teton County Sheriff's Deputy Aaron Dunlap filed Jan. 17 in 9th Circuit Court, Kren, 45, lost control of his Chevrolet pickup truck shortly after 9 p.m. Jan. 13.