For years, patients have relied on Atlanta-based Grady Memorial Hospital's free provision of dialysis to people without means, and these patients say they have no other options to obtain the care that is essential to their survival. But the safety-net hospital, after years of failed efforts to drain its red ink, is not backing away from what its decision to close the clinic this month. The sides confronted each other in state court as lawyers for the patients sought to keep the clinic open until other arrangements for dialysis could be secured.
Senate Democrats turned down Republican attempts to make fundamental changes in their healthcare legislation as the Finance Committee voted on a wide range of amendments that highlighted the deep partisan divide over the bill. The committee chairman, Senator Max Baucus, said he hoped the committee would approve the bill this week so it could be merged with a separate bill approved in July by the Senate health committee. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said the full Senate could start debate early next month.
In arguments before the state's highest court, the Illinois Attorney General's Office said a hospital that provides less than 1% of its revenues on charity care does not deserve a property tax exemption. The Illinois Supreme Court heard 55 minutes of arguments over how much charity care a hospital should provide and whether it should go beyond providing free medical services. The case pits Provena Covenant Medical Center in Urbana against the state Department of Revenue. At the heart of the state's argument in keeping Provena from being exempt from property taxes is a level of free care it provided in 2002 when state Department of Revenue Director Brian Hamer said the hospital's charity care was less than 1% of its revenue.
In the drive to bring health coverage to almost every American, lawmakers have largely rejected restrictions on how much insurers can charge, sparking fears that consumers will continue to face the skyrocketing premium increases. The legislators' reluctance to control premium costs comes despite the fact that they intend to require virtually all Americans to get health insurance, a mandate that would mark the first time the federal government has compelled consumers to buy a single industry's product and effectively create a captive market, according to the Los Angeles Times.
After losing its first battle against fast-food restaurants, a doctors group went back to court and accused the KFC chain of selling grilled chicken with dangerous levels of a cancer-causing chemical. In a lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine accused KFC of violating California's Proposition 65, which requires businesses to warn customers if they are being exposed to substances that cause cancer or birth defects.
The healthcare bill proposed by the Senate Finance Committee would pare tax-free health expense accounts. The legislation would limit flexible spending account contributions to $2,000 a year beginning in 2013, and it would standardize the expenses that are qualified. Some health plan administrators are distressed that Congress may scale back such accounts, and administrators have started a campaign to preserve the flexibility in the plans.