Michael Dermer, president and CEO of IncentOne, talks about legal and tax implications of incentive program design. He will be part of an audioconference on the topic on May 13.
As part of a Medicaid cost-cutting plan, North Carolina would get about $514.6 million less than expected from the federal government, according to national advocacy group Families USA. The reduction in its first year would cost 11,700 North Carolina jobs and $412.1 million in lost wages, the findings show. The Bush administration has rewritten the rules to limit payments to hospitals and eliminate federal funds for school-based outreach in an effort to cut costs.
For hundreds of thousands of Florida parents who can't get or can't afford health insurance, Florida has a subsidized, low-cost program called KidCare that covers children. But children's advocates complain that it's too difficult for parents to enroll their children and keep them in, and are urging lawmakers to make it easier to navigate KidCare. Simplifying the system is an effort that has bipartisan support but has failed in previous years, but the effort got a bit of new life with the emergence this week of a bill primarily aimed at helping families of children with autism and related disorders get coverage for their treatment.
Ratings from consumer group Public Citizen showed the Florida Board of Medicine disciplined doctors slightly more often than in a previous study, but still ranks in the bottom half of states. Public Citizen is concerned that many states are lenient in not disciplining problem doctors, and as a result endangering the lives and health of patients. The Florida Board of Medicine has repeatedly insisted it's only doing its job in treating physicians fairly.
The new report from nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen ranks California 36th in the nation in disciplinary actions against doctors, which include the revocation, surrender and suspension of medical licenses. The previous year, California ranked 27th in the nation. The data show that physicians who might have been properly disciplined a few years ago may escape scrutiny today, according to the report's authors.
There hadn't been a nurses' union in Texas since the 1970s, until Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. opened the door to nurses' unionization when Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center in Houston had the first successful union vote in the state's history. Now the California Nurses Association is hoping that agreement will give it enough leverage to push its way into Dallas-Fort Worth, where Tenet owns three hospitals. From there, the union says, it plans to head into unaffiliated hospitals throughout the state to bring Texas in line with other states where nurses are organized.
Nashville Medical Home Connection, a partnership of health plan AmeriChoice and several hospitals, is among recipients that will share in grants totaling $50 million to 20 states that aims to reduce use by Medicaid beneficiaries of hospital emergency rooms for non-emergent reasons. The Medical Home Connection will receive $1.35 million over two years, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Dubuque, IA-based Finley Hospital has accused Iowa House Speaker Pat Murphy of using his position to punish the hospital over a labor dispute involving Murphy's wife and other nurses. Lawmakers have approved a Murphy-written agreement that increases Medicaid reimbursements to Iowa medical providers by 1%, but the proposal excludes Finley Hospital. Murphy was involved in a labor battle with the hospital in 2007 in which he called for Finley's top officials to resign. Murphy's wife, Therese, is a nurse and was involved with the union dispute.
A would-be buyer has emerged for St. Francis Hospital & Health Center in Blue Island, IL, that would transfer the facility and other assets to a group of investors affiliated with a for-profit company. St. Francis parent SSM Health Care has signed a "tentative agreement" with MSMC Investors LLC, a buyer working with a startup hospital company known as Transition Healthcare Company. SSM recently announced that it would close the 410-bed hospital due to rising numbers of uninsured and the lack of a buyer.
The UnitedHealth Group says the weakening economy is causing fewer businesses and employees to sign up for its health insurance. UnitedHealth recently announced disappointing first-quarter earnings, and also cut its overall profit outlook for 2008. UnitedHealth representatives said that fewer employers were offering health coverage to their workers, and that when they did, fewer employees were choosing to enroll. The insurer is one of the nation's largest, and its results have raised anxiety about the industry's challenges.
