A coalition of healthcare organizations have sued California to block a 10 percent cut in Medi-Cal rates. The cuts would put Medi-Cal and Denti-Cal, safety net programs for the state's poor, on the verge of a "healthcare catastrophe," said members of the coalition. Fewer doctors would be willing to accept patients on Medi-Cal because the reimbursement rate is already the nation's lowest, the officials added. The suit seeks an injunction to halt $1.3 billion Medi-Cal program cuts that were approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Approximately 6.6 million people in California receive Medi-Cal.
Although there remains potential for huge growth in the industry, the number of people traveling the globe for medical treatment likely is far lower than commonly assumed, according to a study by consulting firm McKinsey & Co. Just 60,000 to 85,000 patients a year travel to another country expressly for inpatient hospital care each year, according to the study. In addition, most aren't seeking low-cost care in the developing world, but many of the medical tourists instead seek the latest treatments available in the United States and other industrialized countries.
Data shows that while the number of uninsured people nationwide rose to 15.7 percent in 2004 from 15.4 percent in 1995, but in that period the proportion of uninsured people using emergency rooms declined. The 26 percent increase in the number of ER visits was largely caused by an increase in the number of people with private doctors who sought emergency room care. The study's authors suggest several reasons for the trend, such as an aging population, a growing number of time-sensitive medical treatments that can be performed only in an ER, complications from medical and surgical treatments, and the difficulty of obtaining a timely appointment with a private physician.
Patients who had private health insurance before enrolling in the State Children's Health Insurance Program still had unmet healthcare needs, according to researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center. A waiting period to qualify for SCHIP doesn't address chronic health conditions such as asthma, according to the study. Thirty-five states require uninsured children to go without insurance for a period of time before they can enroll in SCHIP in an effort to deter a situation called crowd-out. Crowd out can happen if patients switch to SCHIP when they could choose private insurance.
House Democrats warned that hospitals in major U.S. cities would be overwhelmed if any of the cities were struck by a terrorist attack, and shortages of emergency room capacity and intensive care beds will grow worse if Bush administration Medicaid changes are implemented. More than half of 34 hospitals in five U.S. cities deemed at greatest risk of attack said they had no emergency room treatment space available to accept severely injured patients, according to a survey by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The Washington, DC, region's largest private healthcare provider is threatening to pull its planned $5 million annual contribution and its doctors network out of proposal to mandate healthcare coverage for all city residents. DC City Council member David A. Catania said he is retooling his Healthy DC legislation after deciding that the city could sign up the estimated 45,000 affected residents by reaching out to them rather than assessing the $250 fine as originally proposed. He added that CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, which would have entered into a contract with the city to carry out Healthy DC, has been indecisive.
More than 200 million children worldwide under age 5 do not get basic healthcare, leading to nearly 10 million deaths annually from treatable ailments, according to Save the Children's global report. The report stated that nearly all of the deaths occur in the developing world, with poor children facing twice the risk of dying compared to richer children. Wide disparities in healthcare for the poorest and best-off children were seen even in the highest-ranked countries in terms of well-being for mothers and children.
HCA, Inc. has plans for building Broadlands Regional Medical Center in Ashburn, VA, which would become the second such medical center in the county. Proponents of the facility say a new hospital is needed in the fast-growing county, while opponents say HCA has chosen the wrong location because the site is less than five miles from Inova Loudoun Hospital. Margaret Lewis, president of HCA's Capital Division, was recently online to answer questions and talk about the proposal. This Washington Post article transcribes her answers to the various questions.
The Washington (PA) Hospital, a 265-bed community facility, has recently started using an innovative science fiction-like wireless voice communications system that allows doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to instantly connect to one other with a simple tap of a button. More than 1,400 people (everyone from nurses, lab technicians and doctors to housekeeping and escort) have been trained to use the Vocera badge and its accompanying software, which includes a hands-free, clip-on device about the size and shape of a portable digital voice recorder. As a result, staff are spending more time with patients and less time returning pages or telephone calls, say hospital representatives.
Despite the gloomy economy in the region, there has been a massive construction boom by the Sacramento area's four big hospital groups. The expansion represents the largest ever in the Sacramento area for UC Davis Health System, Sutter Health, Catholic Healthcare West and Kaiser Permanente. Added together, they total more than 3.5 million square feet of construction and $2.6 billion in costs. Other than state government, healthcare was the only economic sector that grew in Sacramento's six-county region between February 2007 and February 2008.
