The Bush administration is backing restaurant owners in their challenge to San Francisco's health coverage program before a federal appeals court. The city created the program to provide care at a network of hospitals and clinics for 73,000 uninsured adults. Most of the estimated $200 million annual cost would come from state and local taxes and payments from patients, but large and midsize companies that do not already offer insurance to their employees must pay a fee to cover the cost of the employees' coverage at the hospitals and clinics. The Golden Gate Restaurant Association is challenging the employer payments.
Los Angeles' city attorney has sued Anthem Blue Cross, accusing the company of unlawfully canceling the coverage of thousands of California residents after they filed medical claims. The complaint says Anthem, its parent company, WellPoint Inc., and another subsidiary illegally revoked the policies of as many as 6,000 members and duped all 500,000 individual policyholders into thinking their coverage would help them if they got sick.
Culver City, CA-based Brotman Medical Center filed for bankruptcy protection in 2007, and its financial condition continues to look bleak as it searches for buyers willing to help pay off its large debt and invest in its aging buildings and equipment. One of its potential suitors is Prime Healthcare Services Inc., a fast-growing California hospital chain. Brotman executives have spurned Prime's overtures, however, because they are worried about some of its business practices, such as cutting hospital services and canceling private insurance contracts.
Aetna, UnitedHealth Group, and Community Health Network of Connecticut Inc. have submitted bids to serve Connecticut's HUSKY Medicaid program and a proposed new health plan for uninsured adults. A goal of the Charter Oak Health Plan, aimed at adults who have not been able to afford coverage, is to charge consumers no more than $250 a month in premiums. The insurers' bids have not been made public, so it's not known if they met the state's goals on premiums and co-pays.
Manchester (CT) Memorial Hospital will be getting a new intensive care unit, a 17,500-square-foot facility that will include 12 beds in private rooms and 10 beds in private "step-down" units for patients who need less monitoring. The "step-downs" can be switched to intensive care units if the need arises, according to hospital officials. The private rooms will offer post-operative patients a clean environment that promotes a decrease in the spread of hospital-acquired infections and better wound healing, officials added.
Cancer Treatment Centers of America says a bill signed into law by Georgia's governor should clear the way for the chain's fifth hospital. Cancer Treatment Centers operates a chain of hospitals that offer traditional treatments of cancer surgery, chemotherapy, radiation and stem-cell transplants. Some states' certificate of need laws, however, have not been friendly to specialty hospitals gaining entry to certain markets. Opponents in Atlanta, for example, argued that Cancer Treatment Centers would be adding excess capacity where there are ample cancer facilities at existing hospitals. Georgia's legislature recently approved reforms to that state's laws that allows Cancer Treatment Centers to apply for a CON.
The medical education establishment is gearing up to push for more doctors to be trained in medical schools and residency programs. Since 2000, 18 separate reports "produced or funded by states, medical societies, hospital associations, and research centers have concluded that doctor shortages already exist or soon will in a variety of places and specialties," according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine. This edition of The Wall Street Journal health blog asks: Is this trend due not to a lack of doctors but a lack of the right kind of doctors in the right places?
Two researchers warn that the entry of big companies like Microsoft and Google into the field of personal health records could alter the practice of clinical research and raise new challenges to the privacy of patient information. The authors are longtime proponents of the benefits of electronic patient records, but their concern is that the medical profession and policy makers have not begun to grapple with the implications of large companies becoming the hosts for vast stores of patient information. The arrival of corporate entrants into health records promises to bring "a seismic change" in the control and stewardship of patient information, according to their research.
Prince George, MD, County Executive Jack B. Johnson said he is "very excited" about a bill that will create an independent authority to take over the county's hospital system. Johnson had remained silent for four days after the bill's passage, leading some to wonder if he no longer supported the vision outlined in the legislation. The bill says that the county and state must agree to a long-term funding plan for the system within 60 days of its enactment. The long-term funding plan will be floated to hospital management companies in hopes they will bid to take over from Dimensions Health, the nonprofit organization that manages the hospital system.
Former Senate majority leaders Bob Dole, George Mitchell, Tom Daschle, and Howard Baker will craft a series of health policy recommendations that will be delivered in 2009 to a new president and Congress. Prior to making the recommendations, the senators will each oversee forums on four key pillars for reform: improving quality and value, improving access, ensuring a strong role for consumers, and finding a way to finance it. The project will be funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
