New York City-based venture capital group Cerberus Capital Management has ruled out the acquisition of Agfa-Gevaert's healthcare unit, deeming it too risky. The private equity firm believes the worsening economic conditions and the division's declining revenues mean the deal looks too high-risk.
Vodafone Spain and Medicronic Salud have used Aerotel's e-CliniQ Wireless Home Monitoring System with successful results. The e-CliniQ Wireless Home Monitoring System enables patients to keep track of their health. Using Bluetooth technology, Aerotel's Tele-Modem Homecare Hub remotely monitors the patient's vital signs from various homecare sensors, transmitting the data to Medicronic's central receiving station via the Vodafone cellular network.
The California Public Employees' Retirement System has announced it will endorse and support a statewide health information exchange system currently being developed by the California Regional Health Information Organization. The goals of the system are to help reduce medical errors and improve clinical outcomes for CalPERS members and all Californians by providing efficient access to electronic medical records. The first phase of the CalRHIO project is to create a resource of patient data for physicians in emergency departments of CalPERS high-volume California hospitals.
Companies are keen to engage consumers in the blogosphere, and more than 11 percent of Fortune 500 companies have corporate blogs. Now companies such as Coca-Cola, Marriott and Kodak have recently recruited chief bloggers, with or without the actual title, to tell their stories and engage consumers. Analysts and industry insiders said the title shouldn't be the focus, but instead what's essential is the brand voice, whether it comes from one chief blogger or a group working together.
A California representative is joining seven other bipartisan co-sponsors to introduce the Medicare Remote Monitoring Access Act of 2008, which proposes Medicare be required to cover remote monitoring services for patients with chronic health conditions. The bill proposes to amend the Social Security Act to cover remote patient management services for heart failure and cardiac arrhythmia. It also proposes to create a demonstration program to evaluate the potential coverage of these services for diabetes, epilepsy and sleep apnea.
Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan has reported late that it saw a 64% drop in net income in the first quarter due to investment losses. Kaiser reported $250 million of net income for the quarter ended March 31, compared with $698 million in the prior-year quarter. Kaiser attributed its drop in net income to "turbulence in the financial markets" impacting its investment portfolio.
A $3 million, five-year grant will allow the University of Alabama-Birmingham to head a major initiative to reduce health disparities among older blacks in rural areas. UAB will lead a collaboration with Morehouse School of Medicine, Tuskegee University and the University of Alabama which will focus on blacks living in rural areas of the Deep South. The nation's elderly black population is growing at a high rate, and there is a serious health gap between blacks and whites that must be addressed, officials said.
Since September, Melanie Smailus' husband has been fighting to deal with not only his grief after her death from leukemia, but also a pricey medical bill that won't go away. The bill that Thomas Smailus keeps getting is for a procedure that the medical bureaucracy insists took place four months after his wife died.
In an effort to refute arguments that expensive hospital bills are primarily to blame for high healthcare costs, the Dallas Fort Worth Hospital Council has released a study to outline hospitals' economic impact. The council's 73 member hospitals added more than 216,000 jobs in 2007 and contributed $312 million in county residential property taxes from direct and secondary employees, according to research. The council's study also found that local hospitals created more than 93,000 jobs in their facilities, 12,500 construction jobs from capital improvement projects, and 110,000 secondary jobs through contractors working to support hospitals.
Officials at Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital have set a target date of May 20 to transfer control of the hospital to a nonprofit corporation. The heads of the old Grady board and the new nonprofit have both agreed to the date for changeover in control. But some outstanding issues remain: Pam Stephenson, the head of the old Grady board, said that board is concerned about the amount of funding that the state will provide Grady. Hospital board members had expected the transfer of control would be met with additional long-term state aid for statewide trauma care that would go to Grady. But the Georgia Legislature has ended its session without approving long-term trauma funding.
