Many have focused on how the current healthcare payment system is helping create shortages among primary-care doctors, internists and others on the front lines of medicine. But often lost is how the system is endangering some of the country's most highly trained specialties, such as endocrinologists, rheumatologists and pulmonologists. These specialties, which don't involve performing many procedures, face acute shortages. Critics say the decrease in specialists can hurt patients in need of proper diagnosis and treatment.
A San Francisco healthcare law is prompting some businesses to raise prices and curtail hiring, but it also is showing early signs of pushing employers to defray medical costs for more workers. The ordinance puts San Francisco among a growing number of regions experimenting with universal healthcare. Despite challenges, experts say San Francisco's ordinance is making headway. About 18,000 people have enrolled in the city's health-services program, and local businesses are seeking ways to cover healthcare costs for hard-to-insure workers.
The economic slowdown has swelled the ranks of people without health insurance, and now it is also threatening people who have insurance but find that the coverage is too limited or that they cannot afford their own share of medical costs. Higher premiums, less extensive coverage, and bigger out-of-pocket deductibles and co-payments are causing many of the 158 million people covered by employer health insurance to struggle to pay for medical expenses. Many doctors say the soft economy is even making some insured people hesitant to get care they need.
New research shows that more than 40 percent of children in families earning between $38,000 and $77,000 annually who are uninsured for a year see no physicians and have no prescriptions during that time. For uninsured children in families earning less than that, the percentage is as high as 55 percent. The percentages taper off but don't fall below 42 percent until the $78,629-and-above bracket, when they drop to 30 percent, according to the researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center.
At a Washington, DC, Council hearing, residents, representatives of HMOs and convenience store owners testified on legislation that would mandate healthcare coverage for all city residents. The subsidized program, called Healthy DC, would cover residents who do not qualify for Medicare, Medicaid, or a city insurance program for low-income residents who are ineligible for other public assistance. About 45,000 residents could be covered by the program, which would cost an estimated $50 million. To enroll, the uninsured would pay $20 to $100 in monthly premiums, depending on their incomes.
Although healthcare reform ranks as the second-biggest domestic issue after the economy in most national opinion polls, it will compete with the Iraq war, taxes, high gas prices and other topics for a prime-time spot in the campaign for the presidential election.
Nearly two decades of healthcare debate has made little headway toward finding a consensus approach, and the issue has not been a key factor in a presidential election since Hillary Clinton led a reform effort in 1994.
Robots are a fast-growing, diversifying $1 billion segment of the medical device industry. For example, many urologists performing prostate surgery view the movements of a robot as the best way to spare nerves crucial to bladder control and sexual potency. A robot's ability to deftly handle small tools also may lead to a less invasive procedure and faster recovery for a patient. In addition, robots can protect surgeons from physical stress and exposure to X-rays that may force them into premature retirement.
Commissioners in Tarrant County, TX, have asked JPS board members and JPS officials to appear at a meeting to address questions raised by a Fort Worth Star-Telegram series on the public hospital district. County commissioners have oversight responsibilities for JPS; they set its tax rates and appoint all 11 members of the JPS board of managers.
Springfield, MO-based CoxHealth expects to pay $60 million to settle a federal investigation of Medicare fraud and other alleged healthcare violations. The case is being handled out of the U.S. attorney's office in Kansas City, and encompasses compensation of physicians, incorrect billing for renal dialysis claims and Medicare cost reporting issues, according to a letter appended to the financial statement. The amount would be one of the largest such settlements in Missouri history.
The University of Miami's medical school has announced an alliance with Jupiter Medical Center. The move allows greater patient access to cutting-edge treatments and clinical trials that community hospitals do not offer. Doctors already send patients to UM's medical campus, but the new agreement will increase the flow. In a few years, Jupiter Medical could also add a residency program for UM-trained doctors.
