As the recession forces more hospitals and doctors to pare costs, the cutbacks are especially affecting children covered by Medicaid, who are being turned away from receiving care. While children have always made up about half of Medicaid's rolls, their numbers have swelled in recent years to the point that at least 22 million, or one in four, U.S. kids now get their health coverage through Medicaid or a state Children's Health Insurance Program.
New York legislation called the Patient Protection Bill was signed into law by Gov. Eliot Spitzer in July 2007 and is intended to ensure high safety standards in offices when surgery and other invasive procedures are conducted with more than minimal sedation. It is the first time that New York State will regulate office-based surgeries. Doctors doing surgery will be required to have their offices accredited by one of three existing agencies by July 14, or face penalties for professional misconduct if they continue to perform operations.
A day after President Barack Obama sought doctor support for his health reform plan, the American Medical Association talked of meeting him at the bargaining table in support of some form of publicly funded health insurance option. Details of the proposed option are expected to be negotiated in the weeks and months ahead, but a key sticking point was whether the politically powerful AMA would agree to support a government-led insurance option for the more than 46 million uninsured Americans.
A former Caritas Christi Health Care System executive sued the Massachusetts-based hospital chain for allegedly retaliating against him after he privately voiced support for a colleague's discrimination claim, telling her she had been "sold out by white males." Michael Metzler, former president of St. Anne's Hospital in Fall River, MA, alleged in a federal lawsuit Caritas Christi reneged on a promise to pay him $250,000 for three months of consulting work after he retired two years ago. Metzler said Caritas Christi decided to punish him after discovering he had sent a supportive e-mail to Susan Labus after she was passed over for Metzler's job and complained to hospital officials she was the victim of gender discrimination.
More medical schools are improving their conflict-of-interest policies to police their ties with drug and medical-device makers, according to the latest ratings from the American Medical Student Association and the Pew Prescription Project, which grade medical schools on such policies. But more than half the schools still have inadequate policies or no policies at all, the organizations found.
After several months of stage-setting, lawmakers are now putting pen to paper and drafting healthcare legislation, says Sg2 columnist Stephen Jenkins. But this process brings the inevitable question of how to for it. It is a trillion dollar question and is unleashing political forces that will test the strength of President Obama's support, Jenkins says.