When Loren J. Borud, MD, began his first case at about 8 a.m., an operating room nurse noticed he looked tired and wobbly. She was so concerned that she suggested Borud postpone his next patient. Borud said he had been up all night working on a book, but he kept operating, starting a second case, during which he briefly fell asleep, according to a report from Massachusetts investigators. These findings are part of a report in which state Department of Public Health investigators found that Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center provided poor care to Borud's second patient that day. They also faulted the hospital's response to Borud's apparent impairment.
A Colorado bill has won initial House approval to expand health coverage by imposing a fee on hospitals. House Bill 1293 would generate an estimated $600 million. That money would draw an equal amount in federal matching funds, and the $1.2 billion total could be used to expand coverage for Medicaid, the state's Child Health Plan Plus, and indigent care programs to at least 100,000 more Coloradans.
Fitch Ratings assigned an AA- underlying rating on the expected issuance of about $200 million in bonds on behalf of Florida-based BayCare Health System. Proceeds from the bonds will be used to refund about $154 million of outstanding auction-rate bonds issues in 2006 to provide $40 million to end a floating-to-fixed-rate swap on the 2006 bonds and to cover the cost of issuance, Fitch said in a release.
Fewer than 1,000 people have signed up for healthcare coverage under the Cover Florida program. Gov. Charlie Crist said in a release that six health plans reported enrolling 952 Floridians in the first two months of the program, from Jan. 1 through Feb. 28. Eighty-two percent of those who enrolled chose catastrophic coverage and 18% chose preventive coverage, the release said.
The federal agency responsible for investigating Medicare fraud and other health law violations, and whose probe of Towson, MD-based St. Joseph Medical Center led to a leadership shake-up last month, has ordered a group of cardiology specialists affiliated with the hospital to hand over business records. Midatlantic Cardiovascular Associates, a dominant cardiology practice at hospitals in the Baltimore area, received a subpoena from the Department of Health and Human Services in June—the month the agency made a similar demand of St. Joseph, documents show.
President Obama sought to reassure Americans that his administration has made progress in reviving the economy and said his $3.6 trillion budget is "inseparable from this recovery."
During a 55-minute news conference, the president focused consistently on his administration's efforts to boost the economy, presenting his first budget proposal as the critical and most far-reaching step in that process.