South Carolina's private and university research hospitals are banding together to identify and curb hospital infections. Curbing infections could save the state's hospitals as much as $40 million a year and reduce the length of stay of patients by up to 24,000 days annually, according to the newly formed South Carolina Healthcare Quality Trust. The trust is a partnership of Health Sciences South Carolina, SC Hospital Association, and the Premier healthcare alliance.
Florida's largest Medicaid insurer has announced it will leave the state's controversial Medicaid Reform program because government-set reimbursement rates are too low. WellCare of Florida's 78,000 Medicaid Reform clients will still receive state-paid health services but through another health plan, according to the Agency for Health Care Administration.
Officials with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services acknowledge they've had trouble with a new $64.2 million computer system that handles Medicaid services. Glitches with the automated system caused a backlog of claims, preventing the state from processing some prior authorizations for therapies and medical equipment. The agency has been unable to process about 10% of its claims for prior authorization within the 20-day time period required under state law, and some requests have taken four times longer to be approved.
The chairman of the Arkansas State Medical Board was critically injured when a powerful car bomb exploded outside his West Memphis home as the physician prepared to leave for work, federal and local authorities said. West Memphis Police Chief Bob Paudert said there is no immediate evidence that Trent Pierce had been threatened or took part in controversial medical procedures. Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler, however, said investigators will meet with board members and other staffers to find out if the attack might have been related to his work on the panel.
A convicted rapist fired in August from his job as a Los Angeles County hospital X-ray technologist was rehired by county managers through a contractor a short time later to do the same work at an East Los Angeles health clinic, officials acknowledged. Gariner Beasley, 48, was fired again Tuesday and escorted from the Edward R. Roybal Comprehensive Health Center, said county Supervisor Gloria Molina. County officials struggled to explain how they had rehired a man they fired in August, calling his criminal record incompatible with a job that required he work alone with patients in "very vulnerable and compromised positions."
As President Obama prepares to push for an overhaul of the medical system, providers of U.S.-backed health plans for the elderly are raising prices. Humana Inc., Health Net Inc., and nearly 200 other providers increased 2009 premiums by 13% on average, or more than five times as much as last year, for people who use Medicare Advantage, according to consulting company Avalere Health.