The incidence of new cancer cases has been falling in recent years in the United States, the first time such an extended decline has been documented, researchers have reported. Death rates from cancer continued to decline as well, a trend that began some 15 years ago, the report also noted. The report attributes the reductions to adoption of healthier lifestyles and improved screening, as well as advances in treatment.
How well a person on Medicare understands the program's benefits affects their access to healthcare, according to a study. The report found that a third of the surveyed Medicare beneficiaries considered themselves as being unfamiliar or very unfamiliar with their program's benefits. "Well designed educational interventions or policies simplifying Medicare benefit programs could have a significant effect on beneficiaries' abilities to get needed care," principal author Robert O. Morgan, a professor of Management, Policy and Community Health at the University of Texas School of Public Health, said in a news release.
Under Blue Cross/Blue Shield's standard option next year, patients will pay 100% for an operation by an out-of-network physician, up to a maximum of $7,500, "per surgeon, per surgical day," according to the Service Benefit Plan. Currently, the rate is 25% of what the company sets for a procedure, plus any difference between that and the billed amount. The fee change has created some outrage among members and their doctors.
Even as layoffs at several companies raise concerns that New York City's economy is shrinking fast, the hospitals and universities that dominate the city's large nonprofit sector are generally holding firm and accounting for a growing share of private-sector jobs. Instead of laying off large numbers of employees, New York's hospitals and universities are trying to weather the economic storm without significant cuts.
The number of outpatient-surgery centers rose in Pennsylvania in 2007, according to a report from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council. Total margins for the ambulatory-surgery centers rose from 20.85% in fiscal 2006 to 24.74% in fiscal 2007. Their margins have increased an average of 2.2 percentage points per year since fiscal 2001.
Duke University Health System is seeking approval from North Carolina regulators for a $235 million expansion to its cancer treatment and research facilities. The proposal includes building a 265,000 square-foot cancer center next to the existing Morris Cancer Clinic, which would be renovated. Duke officials said that the expansion is necessary to handle increasing demand for cancer care as the region's population grows and treatment improves. The project requires approval from the state's Certificate of Need office.