The San Francisco Health Commission is calling on Mayor Gavin Newsom to back away from demanding $26.7 million in health cuts, saying it would mean decimating the city's safety net for the poor, homeless, mentally ill, and drug-addicted. Newsom has ordered all city departments to submit midyear cuts to eliminate a deficit that could reach $125 million. The Public Health Department has been told to cut the most because it is the city's biggest agency.
Top Connecticut officials gathered in a meeting that clarified that Gov. M. Jodi Rell's controversial Charter Oak healthcare plan is no longer linked to the popular HUSKY plan for children. The state social services department and Democratic legislators have clashed for months over Rell's Charter Oak plan. Despite a previous statement to the contrary, Social Services Commissioner Michael Starkowski made it clear that doctors can now enroll in HUSKY without being required to also enroll in Charter Oak, which only covers those 19 to 64. They can choose to join either program or both.
Two Williamson County, TN-based dialysis companies are merging in hopes of becoming more competitive in an industry facing changes in how Medicare pays to provide care for people with kidney disease.
The parent of Brentwood, TN-based Renal Advantage Inc. said it agreed to buy National Renal Alliance LLC of Franklin, TN, in a deal that it said would add about $100 million in annual revenues.
After the deal closes, Renal Advantage's parent RA Group Holdings Inc. will serve 10,500 patients in 136 dialysis centers in 18 states.
Diabetic supply maker Bayer Healthcare has agreed to pay $97.5 million to settle allegations that it paid kickbacks to several diabetic suppliers and caused them to submit false Medicare claims, the U.S. Justice Department said. Bayer agreed to enter into a corporate integrity agreement—which allows companies to continue in the federal Medicare program while requiring steps to safeguard against fraudulent behavior—as part of the settlement. The settlement resolves allegations that Bayer paid 11 diabetic suppliers to convert their patients to Bayer products from competitors' products. It pertains to Medicare claims submitted by the companies from 1998 to 2007.
The housing market's collapse is forcing a growing number of Americans with large medical bills to choose between paying the mortgage and paying the doctor. People have long resorted to borrowing against their homes to pay for medical care in times of unexpected illness or after an accident. But with home values plummeting and interest rates on adjustable mortgages ratcheting higher, some indebted patients are at risk of losing their homes in order to pay for big-ticket medical expenses. Other patients are forgoing healthcare in order to keep from losing their homes.
Emory University's Center for Health Discovery and Well Being is part of an effort to answer one of the most pressing questions for healthcare: how to reverse the growing burden of chronic disease. Many experts believe the answer is to shift the focus from diagnosing and treating disease to maintaining good health and prevention, and one way to do that is to tailor healthcare to each individual based on his or her unique characteristics. But the challenge is finding a way to do so that benefits the largest number of people and that doesn't waste healthcare dollars. Now researchers from Ohio State University, Vanderbilt University, Duke University, and elsewhere are convening at Emory to explore possibilities for predictive health and personalized medicine.