Recent movement on Capitol Hill and by major healthcare players suggests that consensus is growing for action this year, but deep rifts remain over how to pay for expanded coverage and whether a new government-sponsored program should be offered to people who have trouble buying private insurance. A coalition of hospitals, insurers, employers, physicians, drug makers, and consumers have released a report endorsing a set of policy changes that could cut in half the number of uninsured Americans.
Faced with mounting budget deficits and the enormous cost of overhauling the nation's healthcare system, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are expressing increasing openness to an idea that once seemed unthinkable: putting taxes on some healthcare benefits. The idea of taxing medical insurance benefits has long worried many lawmakers, who are concerned that new taxes could jeopardize the employer-based health system most Americans rely on.
After years as a top state and federal healthcare official, Nancy-Ann DeParle turned her attention to the business of medicine, overseeing more than a dozen companies as a board member or private equity portfolio manager over the past eight years. In 2006 and 2007 alone, DeParle collected at least $3.5 million from fees and the sale and awards of stock from healthcare firms, according to regulatory filings. Now DeParle is the White House czar for healthcare reform, helping lead an overhaul of the nation's system of medical care, a process almost certain to impact the fortunes of the industry she recently served.
Union canvassers in Boston are pursuing two urgent missions: organizing the city's big teaching hospitals and trying to rally support for federal legislation that could enhance the strength of unions nationwide. The two goals are intertwined, because passage of the bill before Congress would make success more likely for the Service Employees International Union's Massachusetts chapter, which is two years into the hospital organizing effort that is focusing first on Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Prince William Health System plans to merge with North Carolina-based Novant Health, which has pledged more than $200 million to help the Manassas, VA, hospital meet the demands of a fast-growing county. The deal comes less than a year after Inova Health System abandoned plans to merge with the Manassas hospital. After that deal fell apart, Prince William Health System studied 20 potential partners and settled on Novant. The two systems will complete the partnership structure, as well as necessary regulatory approvals, over the next several months. The merger is expected to be done this fall.
With Charity Hospital shuttered and the old University Hospital retooled after Hurricane Katrina, does the legal entity comprising the two facilities and linking several local universities still exist? Or is the Louisiana State University System, by itself, now running a new, temporary entity in the former University Hospital building? Competing answers have led to a deadlock over whether and how LSU should share authority of the hospital with other stakeholders whose faculty and students work in the facility.