Registered nurses who provide bedside care in Iowa were supposed to see extra money in their paychecks, provided by nearly $3 million from the state last year. But some lawmakers are now questioning whether all 34 designated hospitals actually paid nurses the bonuses, or whether they simply rolled the money into ordinary cost-of-living raises. Hospital officials say that the budget bill approved in 2008 that designated a portion of Medicaid money for nurses' pay didn't specify that the money had to be above normal raises.
Health Management Associates Inc. reported net income of $167.2 million, or 68 cents a share, for 2008, compared to net income of $119.9 million, or 49 cents a share in 2007. For the fourth quarter ending Dec. 31, net income was $14.5 million, or 6 cents a share, compared to net income of $12.5 million, or 5 cents a share, in the fourth quarter a year earlier.
Broward, the largest county in Florida's Medicaid privatization experiment, wants out of the troubled program amid complaints that residents are getting shoddy medical treatment. Two years into the pilot, residents "tell these terrible stories about how their medical treatment is so compromised that it is unacceptable," said state Rep. Elaine Schwartz, D-Hollywood. She worked with Broward County commissioners to draft a resolution that supports a repeal of the pilot in the county and opposes expanding it into other counties.
Many of the treatment guidelines doctors follow when caring for heart patients are not based on conclusive research, a new study says. Doctors say the study highlights a lack of scientific evidence underlying complex treatment questions, including how much aspirin to prescribe for heart attack prevention, how best to treat heart valve disease, and when to choose angioplasty over bypass surgery. Research shows that patients do best when doctors follow guidelines based on scientific evidence, and the American Heart Association has adopted a "Get With the Guidelines" program to encourage that approach.
Nadya Suleman told TV host "Dr. Phil" McGraw that she fears Kaiser Permanente Medical Center may not release her octuplets to her until she proves she can care for them. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, McGraw said Suleman called him and was distressed after talking to Kaiser officials. Suleman has taped two episodes of McGraw's show. Suleman, a single mother who already had six children before giving birth to octuplets Jan. 26, lives with her mother in a three-bedroom house that is in pre-foreclosure. Suleman has no job and relies on government assistance.
A health network is closing skilled care units in three hospitals it operates in western Pennsylvania, a decision that could affect about 100 employees by July 1. Excela Health spokeswoman Robin Jennings says some nurses and other employees in those units will be offered other jobs. Excela says the skilled care units in hospitals it operates in Greensburg, Latrobe, and Mount Pleasant have been losing unspecified "millions" of dollars.
Gary L. Gottlieb, MD, the president of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, will become chief executive of Partners HealthCare System Inc. at the end of the year. Partners' board of directors unanimously selected Gottlieb, ending five months of speculation. In September, Partners said James J. Mongan, MD, would retire at the end of 2009 and named Gottlieb and three other system executives as finalists for his job. A search committee also evaluated outside candidates.
A jury has awarded $1.6 million to a female neurosurgeon at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital, finding that she was subject to a hostile work environment and that, when she complained, the hospital retaliated against her. The jury's verdict comes after a seven-week trial in a sex discrimination lawsuit filed by Sagun Tuli, MD, against the hospital and her boss, Arthur Day, MD, the chairman of the neurosurgery department. Tuli said in court documents that Day repeatedly made demeaning statements to her while she was operating.
A study has found that more than a third of New York State's recipients of Medicaid and other public health insurance programs fail to re-enroll on time, losing coverage even though they remain eligible because of daunting paperwork and other obstacles. The study by the nonprofit New York State Health Foundation said many people were deterred by Medicaid's annual recertification process and that the resulting churning, in which recipients fall off the rolls and then reapply from scratch, costs the state money because it is more inefficient.
The Indian government says that special facilities are not offered to foreigners seeking medical treatment at the cost of domestic patients. And no special or additional incentives are being given to doctors or healthcare facilities that see foreign patients. Officials say, though, that working out packages with hospitals to serve foreign patients facilitates usage of India's natural strengths.
