Gov. Pat Quinn has ordered state officials not to issue any new rulings that could deny tax-exempt status to nonprofit hospitals, saying he hopes to work with the hospital industry to find a legislative compromise. In a letter to the Illinois Hospital Association released to The Associated Press on Thursday, Quinn called for a solution that would be fair to both the hospitals and Illinois taxpayers. The letter follows the Illinois Department of Revenue's decision last month to deny tax exemptions to three hospitals, citing a 2010 Illinois Supreme Court ruling. The denials signaled that the state would get tough on hospitals it believes are operating more like businesses than charities.
When Dr. David Blumenthal was appointed in 2009 by the Obama administration to coordinate national efforts to promote electronic health records, his wife thought it was "a huge failure of vetting," he told an audience at a Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare event last night. She manages their home computers. And he had not grown up as someone naturally interested in information technology. Blumenthal, who left his federal role earlier this year and is a Harvard Medical School professor of health care policy, said that as he learned to use the electronic systems as a primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital in the early 2000s, he became a believer. Quite simply, he said, the electronic records made him a better doctor.
New guidelines for stricter testing of organ donors are raising concerns among transplant surgeons, who fear they may limit availability of organs. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued new guidelines recommending that all organ donors be checked for HIV and hepatitis B and C with the most sensitive screening method, known as nucleic acid testing, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Mitchell Henry, president of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, and chief of the transplant center at Ohio State University, tells the Health Blog the guidelines go too far in the pursuit of safety, and don't take into consideration the realities of organ transplantation — which is often performed in life-and-death situations with little time to spare.
On the outskirts of Augusta on Friday, officials from the MaineGeneral Health system will break ground on a brand new $322 million hospital. The 192-bed facility is scheduled to open in 2014 and will replace three smaller, aging MaineGeneral hospitals in the region — the Thayer and Seton facilities in Waterville and the former Augusta General Hospital in Augusta. The new hospital will feature all private inpatient rooms,10 operating rooms, and the latest in imaging, diagnostic and therapeutic technologies. The MaineGeneral project is funded through a $35 million donation from the Harold Alfond Foundation and more than $280 million in 30-year bonds sold through the Maine Health and Higher Educational Facilities Authority. It won the approval of the state's Certificate of Need office in November 2010. It is expected to open in June of 2014.
Forsyth Medical Center said today its cardiac and vascular center has formed an affiliation with the Cleveland Clinic in an effort to improve its services in those categories. The Cleveland Clinic, founded in 1921, is a nonprofit, multispecialty academic medical center that has pioneered many medical breakthroughs, including coronary artery bypass surgery and the first face transplant in the United States. The Cleveland Clinic has agreed to the same affiliation with Novant Heath Inc.'s facilities at Presbyterian Hospital in the Charlotte market.Forsyth officials said the affiliation will provide the center with access to the research and expertise of the Cleveland Clinic's heart program, ranging from prevention to medical cardiology to cardiovascular surgery.
Healthcare expenses for U.S. employers are expected to increase next year at the lowest rate in more than a decade, but the cost of benefits for workers is likely to outpace the growth of their earnings, a national survey has found. Companies expect their bills for health benefits to rise 5.4% on average next year, the smallest increase since 1997, according to preliminary results from a survey of nearly 1,600 employers by benefits consulting firm Mercer. The smaller increase reflects cost-cutting efforts by employers. Many are moving workers into lower-cost health plans or slashing expenses by raising insurance deductibles. In the absence of any cost-cutting, employers said they expect their average health benefit costs to rise 7.1%. That is down from about 9% each of the last five years.