Unless healthcare reform becomes a reality, most Americans can expect to pay health insurance premiums that will double by 2016, a new report claims. Left unchecked, the costs of employer-paid health insurance will jump from $11,381 to $24,291 in the next seven years, according to the report by the Public Interest Research Group. Wasteful spending and inefficiencies are what is fueling the trend, the report contends.
Tucked inside the $819 billion economic stimulus package that passed the House are provisions to spur the adoption of electronic medical records. The $20 billion for health information technology would be, by far, the biggest government infusion to enable medical information to follow patients back and forth among doctors' offices, hospitals, and other providers. If successful, experts say, electronic medical records would improve quality, reduce duplication of services, and limit errors—ultimately saving the nation hundreds of billions of dollars each year.
Charges of bias and inappropriate behavior flew between Naperville-based Edward Hospital officials and members of a Illinois regulatory board just minutes after the board for the third time in five years rejected Edward's request to build a hospital in southwest suburban Plainfield. Edward had requested permission to build a 130-bed, $242 million facility on 60 acres it owns. Edward already operates an immediate-care center there, and won permission from the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board to upgrade a portion of that center to a free-standing emergency room. But the board denied Edward's request to build a hospital on the site, saying there are more than enough hospitals nearby.
Cambridge (MA) Health Alliance has announced that it will reduce its workforce by more than 300 employees, end inpatient services at Somerville Hospital, and shut down its pediatric and addiction units. The three-hospital system has been struggling with its finances for at least a year, but state budget cuts last fall and the recession made the situation more dire, executives said.
Several key public health programs face sharp cuts under the Massachusetts budget proposed by Governor Deval Patrick for the next fiscal year. The $28 billion spending plan also freezes Medicaid reimbursement rates for doctors and hospitals who care for poor patients, after steep cuts made in October. The state's closely observed health insurance initiative, emerged largely, but not entirely, untouched in the budget blueprint. A program that provided $3.5 million to help the uninsured enroll for health coverage was eliminated.
Google, which last year launched a personal online repository called Google Health, is refuting a charge by a different consumer group of "a rumored [Google] lobbying effort aimed at allowing the sale of electronic medical records." The group further claimed that Google is "reportedly" pushing for items in the economic stimulus bill that would allow the company to "sell patient medical information" to advertisers. Google posted an item in its public policy blog calling the claims "100% false and unfounded."