The University of Minnesota Medical School is considering a very strict new conflict-of-interest policy. The far-reaching policy comes as congressional investigators and the U.S. Justice Department are probing ties between doctors and drug companies and medical device manufacturers—probes that have raised some difficult questions for the university. The Medical School's proposed policy digs deep and reaches far into the entrenched relationship between the drug and medical device industries and the university's doctors, researchers, and students, as well as the institution itself.
In-store health clinics continue to expand in the Pittsburgh market, but research is raising concerns about their long-term viability. The Pittsburgh area is expected to have 24 retail clinics by the end of 2008, almost evenly divided between Take Care centers at Walgreens and MinuteClinics at CVS. But a HealthPartners study and another led by a UPMC internist acknowledged that several key issues were ripe for further research, including assessing the quality of care given the absence of a physician and whether the cost savings merely shift the burden onto primary care physicians who see fewer and sicker patients.
Iowa's Executive Council voted to make Wellmark the only health insurance option for state employees and ended its coverage with UnitedHealthcare. Officials say the change will save the state as much as $9.5 million next year, but opponents say thousands will be left with fewer options.
Spurred on by smaller instruments and wider acceptance by doctors, minimally invasive surgery is now common in children from birth onward. Pediatric surgeons in Orlando, for example, routinely fix complex internal birth defects, drain chest infections, and ease chronic acid reflux with slender instruments and camera views provided through small slits in the skin. And some procedures in children and adolescents, such as appendectomies and gallbladder removal, are almost exclusively done with less-invasive techniques.
Columbia, SC-based Sisters of Charity Providence Hospitals will lay off about 30 employees as it seeks to hold off projected losses of $1 million this year and $7 million next year, officials announced. Providence is licensed for 304 beds and employs 1,900 people at two locations. The hospital posted a surplus last year of almost $6 million, but cuts in federal reimbursement, decreases in patient overnight stays, and an ongoing legal challenge from Lexington Medical Center has cut into the hospital's revenue and prevented it from attracting new business through improvement of its facilities and equipment.
A study to be released by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina showed that companies willing to make small investments in wellness initiatives see long-term returns. The study showed that companies that offer comprehensive wellness programs see a 25% to 30% decrease in medical and absenteeism costs in about 3.6 years. These decreases will be more significant to employers as healthcare costs continue to rise, said Blue Cross representatives.