Groups representing most of the nation's hospitals are suing federal health officials to block the enactment of regulations that would restrict federal Medicaid payments so they don't exceed the cost of providing care. Hospital officials say the rules would make it harder to offset the expense of treating the uninsured, and threatens their survival. The lawsuit, which will be filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, would bar federal health agencies from enacting the regulations.
The Boston-based Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, a child advocacy group, wants to keep Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH, from putting clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch's name on a new emergency room. Abercrombie has pledged $10 million toward the construction of the emergency department at Nationwide Children's. But the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood says Abercrombie has earned a reputation for risque catalogs and promotional photography featuring scantily clothed models, and as a result should not be promoted by a children's hospital.
Aetna has plans to announce a new service called SmartSource that draws upon a patient's own medical history to help answer questions about symptoms and treatments. The insurer plans to provide the service free to its customers in the hopes it will help people manage their own healthcare. Aetna leaders also think the service can help it recruit and retain employer-customers worried about the costs of care. SmartSource will be offered to employers that provide worker health benefits through Aetna, and a gradual introduction will begin in August 2008.
The Service Employees International Union was hoping to unionizing 8,300 workers at nine Ohio hospitals through upcoming elections. But now organizers from a rival union, the California Nurses Association, has begun pressing the workers to vote not to join the SEIU. As a result, the service employees has asked to postpone the vote by workers at the nine hospitals, all part of the Catholic Healthcare Partners system.
The Center for Democracy and Technology, a Washington, DC-based digital rights and privacy group, has taken over the Health Privacy Project. The merged organization will expand work on several lingering patient privacy issues, such as the role of patient consent for information use, enforcement for privacy lapses and the rights of patients to access their data. Privacy needs to be a higher priority as the U.S. government and other groups push for adoption of health IT, said CDT representatives.
Farmers and ranchers spend more money on health insurance than most Americans, according to The Access Project, a research organization at Brandeis University in Boston. A survey found that one in four producers have financial problems because of the cost of health insurance. The researchers' sample included more than 2,000 farmers and ranchers in North Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota. According to the report, families who farm and ranch in those states are at a disadvantage to other families because they often have to purchase health insurance in the individual market.
In the last year, the Bush administration has sought rule changes that would shave $15 billion in the next five years from Medicaid, and the changes have consumed healthcare leaders across the country. Hospital leaders and local government officials across the country say that if Congress doesn't block the regulations, patients will lose. In addition, some say the rule change would force some rural hospitals into the red. In North Carolina, for example, half the state's rural hospitals could run deficits because of the cuts.
Under a bill passed by the Kentucky House of Representatives, insurers would be required to offer parents the option of including unmarried children on their health-insurance policies until age 25. The bill, backed by the Kentucky Medical Association, also would require insurers to provide 90 days' notice before changing a payment rate.
A plan to expand health insurance to almost all Iowa children has been approved by the Iowa House. The proposal would aim to provide coverage to nearly all Iowa children by 2011, as well as create a plan to cover all adults by 2013. While the proposal doesn't immediately provide insurance for all Iowans, it establishes the foundation for universal healthcare, said Iowa politicians.
The North Texas Specialty Physicians organization is reaching out to about 15,000 doctors and encouraging them to take advantage of free software that would enable them to send prescriptions to pharmacies via the Internet. The physicians group is distributing information to doctors in Tarrant and 11 other North Texas counties, and the organization has spent more than $100,000 on the effort.
