Kaiser Permanente's decision to send nearly all its patients needing hospitalization to the Cleveland Clinic was designed to enhance the health-maintenance organization's reputation and boost profits by consolidating care from 11 hospitals to one. A decade and a half later, Kaiser has gone back to using numerous community hospitals as well as its own health centers for members who do not need transplants or specialized care. Kaiser never saw the increase in Cleveland-area customers it expected, and instead went from 206,000 members when the decision was made to 150,000 today.
After eight years, a dissident group of Tenet shareholders has dissolved its committee. The Tenet Shareholder Committee group published a final report on its Web site, recounting how it attempted to influence the corporate culture at the healthcare giant and recommended specific enforcement reforms for consideration by the new administration, Congress, and the states.
Alaska has launched a new database designed to help healthcare officials track Alaska residents' vaccine history. The data base, called VacTrAK, is the state's first Web-based immunization information system. The Alaska's Department of Health and Social Services' public health division will manage the database.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has accelerated his administration's efforts to control spiraling statewide healthcare costs, warning that rising premiums threaten to crush families and businesses and doom Massachusetts' experiment with universal insurance. Patrick said officials are considering using state insurance regulations to block excessive healthcare premiums, and he is also summoning leaders of insurance and hospital companies for meetings to ask for their "vigorous cooperation."
Philadelphia-based health Insurer Cigna Corp. said it will cut about 1,100 jobs and take a fourth-quarter after-tax charge of $30 million to $40 million for 2008. The company's 4% workforce reduction will be complete by the middle of the year, and some offices will be consolidated. A declining stock market and the recession have eroded the earnings outlook for Cigna.
If Barack Obama makes good on his promise to increase access to healthcare for America's 45 million uninsured, more people will be seeking appointments with busy primary care doctors. But now some say that the increased demand that would follow health reform could lead to an exodus of Canadian doctors to the United States.