Healthcare is one of the largest industries in the country, and is projected to grow as the ranks of aging baby boomers swell. Now aspiring doctors and medical technicians can often get lessons in anatomy, disease, or radiology before college. There are an increasing number of rigorous classes for high school students seeking an early glimpse into the growing healthcare field, and a head start on the training they'll need.
In India, 44 bomb blasts in six cities have killed more than 150 people since May. But medical experts say the toll would be lower if ambulance services and public hospitals had the resources to treat more people during the "golden hour," the crucial period after a trauma in which a life can be saved.
A judge has ordered San Fernando Valley-based Providence Holy Cross Medical Center to halt construction on its $180-million expansion until the Los Angeles City Council reconsiders the project and decides whether more environmental review is needed. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Thomas I. McKnew Jr. said the hospital must stop work until the council either approves the project with an eight-vote majority or orders an environmental impact report on the project. Attorney Ted Franklin, who represents groups challenging the hospital expansion, urged the council to demand the extra environmental review, a process that typically takes at least a year.
Massachusetts officials have announced new healthcare regulations designed to increase pressure on companies that don't help cover insurance costs for large portions of their workers. Under Massachusetts' healthcare law, employers who did not enroll at least a quarter of their workers in an insurance plan or contribute a third of the premium costs faced a $295 annual fee per worker. The fees only applied to businesses with 11 or more full time workers, but the new regulations stipulate that companies with more than 50 full-time employees will have to meet both tests.
Hoover, AL's quest for a hospital took an important step when a state regulatory council chose Brookwood Medical Center's proposal for a facility. The approval puts Brookwood's plan before the public for a 35-day open comment period which will begin at the end of October and end around January. Baptist Health, which came also proposed a Hoover hospital, did not oppose the project, saying it feared it would cause a delay in the process.
Despite a monthlong delay due to two hurricanes, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration still believes there is time to strike a deal with the Bush administration to overhaul the state's Medicaid program. The proposed pilot program would steer as many as 380,000 Medicaid recipients, most of them children, into managed-care networks. The administration's goal is to launch it in the New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, and Shreveport regions by mid-2010. Louisiana is among a handful of states that still rely exclusively on a fee-for-service model to deliver Medicaid services.