HCA Inc.'s agreement to sell a hospital in Pensacola, FL, fell through after the nonprofit healthcare system that sought to buy it couldn't secure financing. Last June, Baptist Health Care announced the $250 million asset-purchase agreement with HCA under which it would buy West Florida Hospital. Baptist obtained regulatory approval, but it couldn't secure financing by year-end as required under the agreement. Al Stubblefield, Baptist's president and chief executive, said that the system's plans to close the deal fell victim to the nation's weakened economy and financial meltdown.
Budget cuts could mean fewer students in some Tennessee nursing programs, raising concern among nursing educators, advocates, and hospitals that a projected statewide shortage of nurses could worsen. Faced with a mandate to cut its budget by 20% and with the loss of two major grants, the University of Tennessee-Knoxville's College of Nursing recently said it might have to admit 50% fewer undergraduates this fall. Programs at other state colleges and universities, meanwhile, are cutting back on purchases of equipment and office supplies among ways to meet the mandate. Such moves concern those who expect more need for nurses to care for an aging and more chronically ill population.
The economic stimulus package now being assembled on Capitol Hill will include significant subsidies to help the newly unemployed keep their health insurance after they lose their jobs, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said. COBRA benefits let laid-off workers keep their group healthcare coverage for up to 18 months, but the benefits are too expensive for many unemployed people because they must pay the full cost of their premiums. Democratic senators want the federal government to ease that burden so more people can keep their insurance.
The breakdown in contract talks between Boston's Tufts Medical Center physicians and Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts has patients fretting they may not be able to see their doctors, and scrambling to come up with alternate caregivers. Tufts Medical Center and its physicians group said they had been unable to reach an agreement with Blue Cross after 11 months of talks. Without a solution, Tufts doctors will no longer accept Blue Cross members as of Feb. 1.
Rep. Pete Stark, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee's health panel, has reintroduced his healthcare legislation without waiting for details from President-elect Barack Obama. Stark has introduced versions of the overhaul legislation for the last 15 years, and recently said he wanted to wait for Obama to spell out his priorities so lawmakers can work to "accomplish his goals." A spokesman for Stark said the bill is designed to provide healthcare coverage for all Americans, and fits within the framework Obama set during the presidential campaign.
The Internet has long drawn people seeking information about healthcare, and in 2007 health Web sites drew about 72 million unique visitors, up 14% from a year earlier. Such strong growth comes as sites increasingly focus on some of today's leading consumer health concerns. But while many health Web sites have enriched their offerings, privacy issues remain a concern.
America's most famous television surgeon, Sanjay Gupta, is President-elect Barack Obama's choice for U.S. surgeon general. A neurosurgeon who is also a correspondent for CNN and CBS, Gupta's selection suggests that the incoming administration values visible advisers who can drive a public message. He has also been offered a top post in the new White House Office of Health Reform.
The Health Information Systems and Management Systems Society has announced that HIMSS09 will kick off on April 4th with the preconference Symposia and Workshops. This year's event takes place in Chicago.
Axolotl, a provider of health information exchange solutions, and M*Modal, a provider of conversational documentation services, have announced a partnership that will capture dictated encounter information, present it, and interpret it in an effort to improve patient care. Axolotl has integrated M*Modal's "Speech Understanding" engine into its Elysium medical transcription workflow solution to populate its own EMR Lite, third party Health Information Systems and Electronic Medical Record systems.
Experts are predicting several happenings in global healthcare over the next year. They expect antibacterial resistance to get worse, as bacteria are evolving at an alarming rate due to overuse of antibiotics. Others include malnutrition, improvement in AIDS care, scandals involving fake or contaminated drugs, and tropical diseases being found in new places.
