The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, and the Sisters of Charity Health System together spent just over 2%—or $157.9 million on $7.2 billion in operating revenues—providing free patient care in 2007, according to their most recent federal filings and data requested by the Cleveland Plain Dealer. In addition to their charity care expenses, the hospitals also say they lost millions more because people did not pay their bills.
The federal government made good on its plan to cut 2010 payments for private Medicare plans, whittling the subsidies to health insurers sooner than the industry originally expected. The cuts are slightly less severe than the 5% reduction the federal agency signaled in February, but still raise concerns about what has been a critical source of profit growth for many health insurers. Reimbursements to private insurers that administer so-called Medicare Advantage plans would fall by as much as 4% to 4.5% next year.
On the third anniversary of Massachusetts' health insurance overhaul, a report shows that employers, consumers, and state government paid the same, proportionately, for health coverage after 2006 as they did the year before the initiative started. The study, released by the Center for Health Law and Economics at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, found that employers contributed about half of the overall spending on coverage in Massachusetts in 2007. Individuals accounted for about a quarter of the total, and government contributed about 27%.
The efforts by hospitals in the Dallas-Fort Worth to fight infections often revolve around creative programs that boil down to keeping hands clean. For example, Arlington-based Texas Health Resources Inc. reinforces protocols with "time outs" in surgical situations to double-check sterilization of equipment and supplies. Meanwhile, Baylor Health Care System spent $6 million on training and data collection across its 15 North Texas hospitals. In addition, $2 million was spent on a program that supplements incomes of physicians who conduct research on improving quality.
The World Health Organization has called on governments to make their hospitals disaster-proof, nearly a year after a massive earthquake devastated parts of southwest China— including scores of hospitals. The message was driven home by the situation in central Italy, where a powerful earthquake killed more than 150 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless.
Like many hospitals around the country, Abington (PA) Memorial Hospital has started to ask patients for their money up front instead of sending bills later. The effort to reduce billing costs is paying off: Abington collected only 4% of co-payments and deductibles from patients while they were at the hospital during the first eight months of fiscal 2008. It got 20% during that time period this year. Alan Zuckerman, president of Health Strategies & Solutions in Philadelphia, said hospitals have been increasing up-front collections for the last two or three years, with "more acceleration in the last six months."