Los Angeles city prosecutors are investigating a Costa Mesa-based College Hospital for allegedly taking a mentally ill man 42 miles to the city's skid row and leaving him near the Union Rescue Mission. If the hospital did transport the man from Orange County to Los Angeles County, it might have run afoul of state law that makes it a misdemeanor to dump patients in another county. During the last 2 1/2 years, Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo's office has filed criminal charges against a hospital, sued several other medical facilities and extracted an extensive settlement from Kaiser hospitals for dumping homeless patients.
On average, U.S. manufacturers who provide health insurance spend more than twice as much as their foreign competitors, according to an analysis. American automakers say employee health coverage adds $1,500 to the price of each car, and U.S. manufacturers have blamed rising healthcare costs for dropping health benefits or shifting jobs overseas. But economists have pooh-poohed the idea that U.S. businesses are hurt by their comparatively high healthcare costs, and suggested that companies pass those costs onto workers by lowering wages or onto consumers by raising prices.
Medicare is drawing complaints about a system of competitive bidding it will begin using this summer to pay for oxygen equipment, power wheelchairs, walkers and other medical devices. Medicare says that seniors and others with disabilities will see an average 26 percent savings in 10 markets, but medical equipment providers say the bidding process was riddled with errors. The American Association for Homecare is is lobbying to Congress for a delay in the program's launch.
The Connecticut Senate has voted early to give final legislative approval to a Democratic bill permitting municipalities, nonprofits and small businesses to join the state employee health insurance pool. While the state budget director has warned legislators that his office's research sees added costs for the state and little or no savings for municipalities, labor unions were happy with the decision. Union representatives said the pool is a way to respond to soaring healthcare costs and to expand quality, affordable coverage to more citizens.
In a new poll, 61% of Wisconsin residents say they favor replacing the current healthcare system with one that covers everyone and is run entirely by the state. Half of those polled say the costs of healthcare are extremely problematic, and another 45% say the state's healthcare system has major problems.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich has agreed to a court's instructions and stopped enrolling people in a healthcare program he launched without legislative approval. The 30,000 people enrolled in the expanded program will continue to be covered, however. Blagojevich tried to pass a major healthcare expansion in 2007, but lawmakers refused to go along. Blagojevich expanded his FamilyCare program anyway to cover people with higher incomes, which led to the lawsuit.
Medical educators are trying to curtail the use of callous language that can lead doctors to think of their patients as obstacles to overcome, rather than human beings deserving of empathy. Medical residents tend to pick up such terms quickly during training, and indoctrination into the finer points of slang is part of what many professors call the hidden curriculum of medical school and residency training.
The boom in walk-in retail health clinics is showing signs of slowing. In recent months, retail health-clinic operators based in New York, Nevada, Indiana and Alabama have closed their doors, shuttering 69 clinics in 15 states. Experts say the venture capitalists and private-equity firms that backed many of the retail clinic operators failed to appreciate how complicated and expensive the clinics are to operate. Research also shows that while patients are enthusiastic about the clinics' convenience and quality of care, acceptance has been slow.
With house prices falling and the cost of gasoline and food rising, many nurses are going back to work and easing the nationwide nursing shortage. Hospitals say part-time nurses are taking on extra shifts, and nursing schools are seeing an increase in people applying for refresher courses on the ins and outs of modern hospitals. Some older nurses are also putting off a planned retirement. The nursing profession also is attracting greater interest because of expanding job opportunities and rising wages in some places.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission has rejected a proposal by St. Vincent's Hospital Manhattan for a $1.6 billion development within the Greenwich Village Historic District. The plan would have demolished nine existing buildings to permit the construction of a 329-foot-tall hospital and a 265-foot-tall luxury condominium. Hospital officials testified that a new building was essential to maintain modern healthcare for more than a million New York City residents who use St. Vincent's.
