The board of directors of National HealthCare Corp., which operates long-term healthcare and assisted living facilities, announced the appointment of Robert G. Adams as chairman and CEO, Michael Ussery as COO, and Steve F. Flatt as president. These changes will become effective Jan. 1, 2009.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota has named Rita Heise, corporate vice president and CIO for Cargill, to its board of trustees. She will serve on the board's human resources and finance and business development committees.
Bruce Mogel, a founder, president and CEO of Integrated Healthcare Holdings, Inc., is leaving the company to pursue opportunities outside of IHHI. His resignation becomes effective on Dec. 31, 2008. Mogel and two others founded IHHI in 2004 to acquire four hospitals formerly owned and operated by subsidiaries of Tenet Healthcare Corp.
Doctors across California and in two other Western states are owed millions of dollars in backlogged Medicare reimbursements, leading some physicians to turn away elderly patients and pushing others to the brink of bankruptcy. In the most extreme cases, doctors have not been paid since February. Others are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars. Doctors who serve high numbers of Medicare patients say they are defaulting on rent, laying off staff, and begging drug suppliers not to stop shipments.
President-elect Barack Obama's plan to extend healthcare to uninsured Americans will provide a boon to hospitals and medical centers, according to Moody's Investors Service. "Moody's estimates that the annual cost of the plan could be on the order of $100 billion to $200 billion, inclusive of participant contributions, on top of current annual government spending of about $800 billion," the rating agency said in a report. "The expected spending could positively affect the top-line growth of many healthcare providers."
An Orange County, CA, executive has resigned after an internal investigation into his employment background and other activities, threatening new turmoil in the management of four major regional hospitals. Bruce Mogel, the president and chief executive of Santa Ana-based Integrated Healthcare Holdings Inc., has tendered his resignation. The resignation will be effective Dec. 31, although Mogel may stay on for up to four months more to assist with the transition to a new CEO.