While a national survey recently found that most U.S. hospitals are behind the curve on implementing electronic medical record systems, nearly all facilities in the Sacramento, CA, area have already begun putting such systems in place. However, one hospital system—Sutter Health—has been slow to implement an EHR system, citing the country's current economic troubles.
New reasearch suggests that a five-in-one polypill could guard against heart attacks and strokes for those over 55. Although progress on the research has been slow over the past five years, there is a trial of the pill currently being conducted in India. And it has already shown that the pill has "the desired effects and is safe and well-tolerated by those who take it." There are some medical experts, however, who question the ethics of the pill as it relates to lifestyle issues—they believe such heart-related problems should be tackled with diet and exercise rather than merely "popping a pill."
The Obama administration set new terms for private Medicare plans that are aimed at protecting sick patients from paying high charges and giving consumers a clearer idea of what the plans cover. The changes, announced by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, are part of conditions that insurance companies must meet if they want to bid on Medicare insurance business this year. Administration officials said the changes are intended to weed out certain out-of-pocket costs charged by Medicare Advantage, the private version of the federal health-insurance program for the elderly.
As Congress begins to grapple with health reform, an influential senator is looking hard at one of the medical insurance industry's most controversial practices and raising questions about how well insurers are regulated. Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat who is chairman of the committee on commerce, is holding hearings on whether health insurers have systematically short-changed patients when they use doctors outside of their health plan's network. The companies are accused of underpaying consumers by hundreds of millions of dollars over the last decade.
Nearly two dozen hospital employees have been fired or disciplined for snooping into the medical records of octuplet mother Nadya Suleman, according to Kaiser Permanete officials. The computer breaches at the hospital were discovered about 10 days ago and reported to state authorities and to Suleman, said Kaiser spokesman Jim Anderson. He said that 15 employees were fired and eight were disciplined. The employees "ran the gamut of medical staff," he said.
In an industry that makes its money by selling more, Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health System officials gambled three years ago that they could succeed by doing less, but doing it better. The health system devised a 90-day warranty on elective heart surgery, promising to get it right the first time, for a flat fee. If complications arise or the patient returns to the hospital, Geisinger bears the additional cost. The venture has paid off. Heart patients have fared measurably better, and the health system has cut its bypass surgery costs by 15%.