An inquiry by the nation's top securities regulator into whether Hospital Corporation of America tampered with payroll records to bill for phantom nursing shifts in London could influence when the hospital chain's private equity owners take the company public again, one stock analyst said. Legal observers, however, said HCA could still go forward with plans for a potential sale of stock to the public while it's being investigated. But the company would have to make required disclosures about the probe in any initial securities filing related to an offering.
As Democratic leaders prepare to bring healthcare legislation before the full House and Senate for votes, they soon must decide who will be taxed to pay for expanding coverage. Legislation emerging from the House would slap a surtax on upper-income people. But many Democrats fear the political fallout over voting to raise anyone's income taxes. The most prominent Senate bill would impose a tax on insurance companies that provide expensive policies, sometimes called "Cadillac" plans. But labor unions oppose the idea, saying the tax would be passed on to workers in the form of higher premiums or shrunken benefits.
To meet patient demands for comfort and to keep them happy in an increasingly competitive market, Boston-area medical institutions, including Newton-Wellesley Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Needham, have recently completed renovations that add more private inpatient rooms. Joe Kirkpatrick, senior vice president for healthcare finance and managed care at the Massachusetts Hospital Association, told the Boston Globe that many healthcare centers in the state have begun reinvesting in their infrastructure in recent years after a long dry spell between 1995 and 2005.
Epidemiologists in New York and a few other cities that were awash in swine flu last spring are detecting very little evidence of a resurgence. Officials in New York, which was the nation's hardest-hit city, say that flu activity is no higher than it normally is at this time of year and that school attendance is normal. New York City public health officials are still conducting an extensive immunization campaign, and they agree that it is far too early to draw any final conclusions.
Minority groups are seeking to become a larger part of the healthcare overhaul debate with a new campaign and new ads. Leaders of black and Latino advocacy groups say that because so many of their members favor healthcare reform, they are becoming more forceful as the final drafts near. According to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, there is a wide racial gap in Americans' views on healthcare reform, with minorities largely in favor of changing the system and supportive of President Obama's handling of it.
With the Senate Finance Committee poised to vote on a broad healthcare reform bill, President Obama and his top aides have reached out to current and retired Republican leaders in the hopes of countering the charge that Democrats are using their congressional majorities to push through partisan legislation. In the past two days, former Senate Republican leader Bill Frist; George W. Bush health and human services secretary Tommy G. Thompson and Medicare chief Mark McClellan; and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have all spoken favorably of overhauling the nation's healthcare system, although with plenty of caveats regarding the details.