As part of the push to reach consumers, the average hospital marketing budget grew 18% between 2004 and 2007, according to a survey published by the Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development. Being "out there" is key to hospitals across the country as they hone efforts to attract growingly assertive consumers who are deciding what procedures to undergo and where they will have them. Since an increasing percentage of consumers are turning to the Internet for healthcare information, many hospitals are boosting their presence with everything from their own sophisticated websites to online video sharing.
St. Charles Parish voters will be asked April 4 to allow the Louisiana hospital to borrow $11.5 million to build a new emergency room and make other capital improvements. Hospital CEO Federico Martinez Jr. said passing the proposal would allow the hospital to extend the repayment period of a $6.3 million loan to build its recent three-story expansion from seven years to 20. The balance would be used to build a new emergency room and lab, as well as other capital improvements.
President Barack Obama says the ideal path to universal healthcare is to build on the current system that relies in part on employer plans rather than scrap what has existed for generations. Asked at his online town hall why the U.S. couldn't opt for a European system, Obama said the United States has a legacy of employer-based plans that have filled the needs of a majority of Americans, and that the country has a set of institutions that aren't easily transformed.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration has initiated its first draw of more than $363 million in Medicaid match funds it received from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
This funding represents the increase in Medicaid matching funds earned for the quarter ending Dec. 31. Under the stimulus package, the federal share of Medicaid program expenditures increases from 55.4% to 67.64%.
Doctors at Seattle-based Harborview Medical Center call it an epidemic: more young adults are dying from trauma injuries than AIDS and stroke combined. But with all the charity care and the economic recession, trauma centers around the country, including Harborview, are now suffering themselves. In the past eight years, 20 hospitals have closed their trauma centers because they cannot afford the cost of specialized and often charity care.
Coastside Family Medical Center, a medical clinic in Half Moon Bay, CA, closed recently with no notice. Open for nearly 25 years, it served 8,000 people. Because Coastside cared for the insured and uninsured, it did not qualify for a federal program that offers significant reimbursements to clinics serving the poor. Of Coastside's 8,000 patients, 6,000 had private insurance, with the remainder uninsured or receiving Medicare or Medi-Cal. Rising costs of healthcare, coupled with a drop in donations and grants, finally did the center in.