Despite budgets ravaged by the recession, at least 13 states have invested millions of dollars this year to cover 250,000 more children with subsidized government health insurance. The expansions have come in the five months since Congress and President Obama used the reauthorization of the Children's Health Insurance Program to increase its funding and encourage states to increase enrollment.
Inova Health System has filed an application with Virginia health officials for a certificate of public need to build a hospital in Loudoun County. The move is the latest step in a years-long battle over where Loudon County's next hospital will be. It highlights the ongoing tension between Inova and the Hospital Corporation of America, which has sought unsuccessfully to build a hospital there.
Two nurses who lodged a complaint with the Texas Medical Board about a physician's standard of practice at a West Texas hospital face up to 10 years in prison after being indicted on charges of misuse of official information. Clair Jordan, executive director of the Texas Nurses Association, called the case bizarre and said it would discourage other whistle-blowers from coming forward "especially if they lose their jobs," as the two nurses have.
The Jackson Health System, Miami-Dade County's government safety net for healthcare, is facing growing numbers of destitute people getting free care in its emergency rooms at a time when its tax revenues are falling steadily. And even if the economy turns around, Jackson's leaders say its financial support system is broken and needs to be fixed, either with an additional half-penny sales tax or by setting up a new taxing structure similar to the ones used by public hospitals in Broward County, FL.
The New Jersey Nursing Initiative is a new $22 million program aimed at averting a critical nursing shortage in the state. A 2002 study released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services predicted a nationwide shortfall of about 800,000 registered nurses by 2020. In 2007, the New Jersey Collaborating Center for Nursing at Rutgers calculated that a third of New Jersey nurses would retire within 10 years.
The Pennsylvania Insurance Department announced that it planned to investigate whether any of the state's four Blue Cross & Blue Shield insurance companies have engaged in "anticompetitive or unfair trade practices" that violate the law. Examinations of Blue Cross of Northeastern Pennsylvania, Capital BlueCross, Highmark Inc., and Philadelphia-based Independence Blue Cross are to be finished by early 2010.