The St. Bernard Parish Council again put off a decision on whether to remove the five-member board overseeing construction of a new parish hospital, after the council chairman pulled the measures from the agenda. Council Chairman Frank Auderer said he put two resolutions on the agenda "in error" that would have removed the Hospital Service District board and appointed new members. Hospital Service District board Chairman Daniel Dysart asked at the meeting whether the measure had been taken permanently off the table or would be reconsidered at a future meeting. Auderer said the matter would be deferred "until we can come into counsel with you all as a group."
Greenville Hospital System University Medical System hopes to close on the Palmetto Health Baptist Easley (SC) deal by the end of May, CEO Michael Riordan told trustees. GHS and Palmetto Health recently formed a new corporation to run the Pickens County, SC, hospital. The plan calls for GHS to pay $45 million for a 50% interest in the Easley facility. GHS general counsel Joseph J. Blake Jr. said the closing date depends on whether any third-party approvals are required and whether they can be completed by May 30. The corporate structure still must be determined as well, he said.
Brookwood Medical Center has asked a Montgomery County, AL, Circuit Court judge to throw out Trinity Medical Center's application to relocate and to require Trinity to go through an extra regulatory process before seeking state permission to move. Brookwood says in its court filing that Jefferson County, AL, has too many unused licensed hospital beds and Trinity should go first through the process of altering the State Health Plan before applying for a Certificate of Need. Brookwood says the State Health Planning and Development Agency should not have allowed Trinity's application to be deemed complete and start through the regulatory process before Trinity won an adjustment to the State Health Plan.
Although the UAW said that it has reached tentative deals with each of the Detroit Three to modify its 2007 labor contract, the union acknowledged that it does not include an agreement on how to fund a critical healthcare trust—commonly called a VEBA. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a statement that "the UAW is withholding the terms of the tentative understanding pending completion of the VEBA discussions and ratification of the agreements." In its 2007 contract talks, the UAW agreed to manage and operate the VEBA, a healthcare fund for its retirees.
Three Miami-Dade County doctors are among those indicted in connection with an alleged $10 million Medicare fraud scheme, according to a press release from the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida. The doctors were all indicted by a grand jury in Miami for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud. The scheme allegedly was operated out of Midway Medical, a Miami infusion clinic that claimed to specialize in treating HIV/AIDS patients.
University Medical Center officials are expected to present new contracts with medical groups and healthcare providers that would save Clark County, NV, about $1.3 million per year.
The hospital has been renegotiating the contracts to help ease its $39 million in debt, and hospital officials say the new contracts would save the hospital $9.5 million over the lives of the contracts.