California lawmakers acted to curb some of the most extreme practices of the state's healthcare industry this session, but failed to fix some widespread problems such as high costs and uneven quality. The Legislature's two-year session resulted in incremental tinkering with California's healthcare system instead of the wholesale restructuring that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dedicated himself to shortly after reelection. After the Senate rejected the governor's $14.9-billion plan in January, healthcare advocates hoped that improvements could be enacted. But aggressive lobbying by insurers and doctors and internal feuds among Democrats killed most of the proposals in the final weeks of the session, which ended without a budget in place.
A survey by the Mercer consulting firm has found 59% of companies intend to keep down rising healthcare costs next year by raising workers' deductibles, copays or out-of-pocket spending limits. On average, healthcare costs will go up by an estimated 5.7% in 2009 for both workers and their employers, the study found. That repeats this year's 5.7% increase and a 6.1% jump in 2007.
Uninsured patients being treated at St. Louis-based BJC Healthcare hospitals could pay less for services under a proposed class-action settlement between the hospital system and a group of its uninsured patients. A judge was scheduled to give final approval, but several other members of the suit have filed objections to the settlement. They say the ruling does little to address the excessive prices billed to patients without insurance. Concerns include that self-pay discounts of 25% are insufficient considering the underlying charge can be three times what an insured patient might be billed.
People living in the most deprived areas of England are less likely to survive cancer, according to government figures. Cancer patients in poor areas of the country have less chance of being alive five years after diagnosis, according to the national statistics office. Its study of National Health Service trusts in England found "significantly lower" survival rates for both men and women across a range of cancers in the 62 most deprived areas of the country.
Tampa (FL) General Hospital’s plan to fix safety problems in its psychiatric unit has been approved by the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Regulators identified the problems after two patients committed suicide in the psych ward in July, and investigators have been at the hospital reviewing the improvements. Tampa General will post its improvement plan on its Web site once the plan has received final approval.
The WHAS Crusade for Children has given $1.4 million to Louisville, KY-based Kosair Children's Hospital to be applied toward the upgrade of a pediatric cardiac catheterization lab and an $18.4 million expansion and renovation of the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit. The Children's Hospital Foundation matched the funds to help the hospital move closer to its fund-raising goals, Kosair said in a news release. The gifts also allowed Kosair to purchase an operating room monitoring system and neurosurgical equipment.