The Food and Drug Administration's recent guidance on how it might regulate mobile health applications used by physicians and consumers will affect only a small portion of the apps on the market, the agency said. However, the FDA's expanded regulation of device-related software will affect device manufacturers and the growing number of firms marketing health apps for smartphones and tablets. "The majority of the folks who I've been dealing with do fall within the scope of that guidance document," said Bradley Thompson, a New York attorney specializing in medical device regulation.
Millions of people across the globe die each year from medical errors and infections linked to healthcare and going into hospital is far riskier than flying, the World Health Organisation said on Thursday. "If you were admitted to hospital tomorrow in any country... your chances of being subjected to an error in your care would be something like 1 in 10. Your chances of dying due to an error in healthcare would be 1 in 300," Liam Donaldson, the WHO's newly appointed envoy for patient safety, told a news briefing. This compared with a risk of dying in an air crash of about 1 in 10 million passengers, according to Donaldson, formerly England's chief medical officer. "It shows that healthcare generally worldwide still has a long way to go," he said. Hundreds of millions of people suffer infections linked to healthcare each year.
The JMH Health Plan, the insurance wing of the Jackson Health System, has become a huge money-loser that must be fixed quickly, board members were told Thursday. So far this year, the plan has lost $30.4 million -- almost half of the $71.7 million that Jackson Health System has lost for the entire fiscal year. "We have to fix this no matter what," CEO Carlos Migoya told the Financial Recovery Board. "Even if we decide we don't want to be in the health plan business, we need to fix it in order to sell it." Previous administrations had counted on the health plan as a major money-maker to compensate for all the uninsured patients. But with $337 million in system losses the past two years, deficits in the insurance plan seem an unconscionable drain, board members concluded. Chief Strategy Officer Donn Szaro said the plan's problems are a "microcosm" of Jackson's woes. The system has a hard time determining its costs in many areas, making it hard to know how much to charge for services.
Maryland and Prince George's County announced a partnership Thursday with the University of Maryland Medical System to attempt to stabilize the county's debt-addled and understaffed hospital system. The partnership would unite the parties in a $600 million effort to improve quality and access to healthcare across Prince George's and build a new regional medical center in the county within the next four years. Officials are optimistic the agreement will help improve health care in a county that has struggled with high mortality rates, a shortage of primary care physicians and a high number of uninsured residents. The county's three primary medical facilities - Bowie Health Center, Laurel Regional Hospital and Prince George's Hospital Center in Cheverly - are run by nonprofit Dimensions Healthcare System. All three have been saddled with debt for years, and Prince George's Hospital Center narrowly avoided shutdowns in 2006 and 2007 due to its financial woes.
Tufts Medical Center has tapped Eric J. Beyer, an insider who built up its doctors group over the past five years, to be CEO of the 415-bed Boston hospital. Beyer, 50, will take the reins Oct. 1, the start of the hospital’s fiscal year. He succeeds CEO, Ellen M. Zane, 60, who will retire at the end of September. The appointment assures continuity at the city’s oldest hospital. Beyer has worked closely with Zane, who has been widely credited with leading a financial turnaround at Tufts. The hospital was losing more than $18 million when she arrived in 2004 but posted a profit of $5.3 million last year, according to state figures released earlier this month. But like other hospitals in Boston and across the state, Tufts will face intense pressures in the coming years as the state and federal governments reduce payments for Medicaid and Medicare, health insurance programs that cover low-income and older patients. Those programs account for slightly more than half of the Tufts payer mix.
Sharon Kelley resigned as CFO for the MetroHealth System in June to work as a consultant to the taxpayer-subsidized hospital, but she remains on its payroll with full pay and benefits guaranteed for up to one year. The hospital system will continue to pay Kelley a $440,000-a-year salary for six months, plus up to another six months if Kelley has not found another job in that time, according to an agreement obtained by The Plain Dealer through a public-records request. During the period, MetroHealth will continue her health, dental, vision and life insurance, her vacation pay and contributions to the Ohio Public Employees Retirement System. MetroHealth also agreed to pay Kelley $6,000 in lieu of outplacement services. Kelley, in turn, is required to keep the deal confidential. MetroHealth said the value of Kelley's salary and benefits would be $517,878 for a full year. Two Republican members of the Cuyahoga County Council are questioning the cost of the agreement at a time when hospital chief Mark Moran has outlined to the council financial challenges facing the system, including declines in patient stays.