Some medical devices for sensitive uses have won government approval without a close scientific review, congressional investigators said. Although Congress ordered the Food and Drug Administration years ago to resolve the issue, the agency approved 228 medical devices without a full scale review from 2003-2007, the Government Accountability Office said in a report. Some devices approved under the less rigorous process have been recalled because of malfunctions and other problems, according to the consumer group Public Citizen.
Health reform prospects drop when Americans hear potential financial trade-offs associated with expanding health insurance coverage, a poll indicates. For example, nearly seven in 10 people say they favor the concept of requiring employers to provide their workers with health insurance or contribute into a fund that pays to cover the uninsured. But if they hear the mandate would cause some employers to lay off workers, support falls to about three in 10 people, according to a new national survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Harvard School of Public Health.
Lawmakers say the state spending plan Gov. Sonny Perdue gave them this week leaves them two paths to fiscal salvation: They can go along with his proposals to charge fees to hospitals and insurers and eliminate grants that save homeowners on their property taxes. But legislative leaders made it clear that they will do everything possible to preserve the grants, which save many homeowners $200 to $300 a year on their property taxes. House members have also voiced strong opposition to fees on hospitals and insurers.
Philadellphia-based Fox Chase Cancer Center officials have started telling employees that it would eliminate 75 jobs. Michael V. Seiden, MD, president and chief executive officer of Fox Chase, said a recent survey showed that because of the recession 20% of patients are cutting back on healthcare and forgoing procedures and recommended follow-up care.
Aetna has announced it agreed to pay $20 million to settle New York’s accusations that it and other health insurers use a manipulated system that shortchanges doctors and hospitals on reimbursement for providing out-of-network services. The news comes two days after New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo announced that UnitedHealth agreed to a $50 million settlement of his investigation into the way insurers pay for care when members go outside the managed care networks. UnitedHealth’s Ingenix unit operates the databases that many insurers use to determine what the "reasonable and customary" charge for each out-of-network service should be in each area. Aetna said it will contribute $20 million in installments over five years, at Cuomo’s request, to help establish the new database that is part of New York’s settlement with UnitedHealth.
A budget meeting about Nashville's struggling safety-net hospital ended on an emotional note, with the city's finance director hotly accusing the hospital chief of distorting Mayor Karl Dean's position. The exchange came after a Metro Council midyear budget hearing with the city's hospital authority, which runs Nashville General Hospital at Meharry. Dean recently sent a letter to the authority chairman saying the city must find a better method of funding the heavily subsidized, cash-strapped medical center.
All Kids is Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's signature healthcare program, launched in July 2006, and it gained enormous attention nationally as the first state plan to offer the promise of universal healthcare coverage for children. A state official said that about 270,000 children have enrolled in All Kids since it began 2-1/2 years ago, but a recent Families USA report indicates that hundreds of thousands of children in the state remain without medical coverage.
A prominent spine surgeon and researcher at the University of Wisconsin received $19 million in payment over five years from spinal device maker Medtronic Inc., according to a senator who is investigating potential conflicts of interest in medicine.
The surgeon, Thomas Zdeblick, received the payments while helping Medtronic develop and promote a number of spinal products. Medtronic's $19 million in payments to Zdeblick from 2003 to 2007 went "greatly" beyond what was evident in disclosures he made to the university, Sen. Charles Grassley said in a Jan. 12 letter to the school's president.
House Democrats presented an $825 billion stimulus package that includes more government spending and less tax relief than President-elect Barack Obama had proposed. The bulk of the package—about $550 billion—would be used to build new schools and highways, invest in energy and healthcare projects and provide unemployment and health benefits for out-of-work Americans.
Seven states and two family-planning groups have asked a federal court to block a new federal regulation that protects health workers who refuse to provide care that they find objectionable.
In three lawsuits filed in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, the states and groups sought an immediate court order preventing the regulation from going into effect and a permanent decision voiding the rule. The lawsuit challenges the regulation on several grounds, charging that it is too vague and overbroad and conflicts with other federal laws and state laws.
