Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has formed a panel of top state officials, which will look into whether a recently disclosed, eight-year-old agreement between Partners HealthCare System Inc. and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts drove up healthcare costs and in turn made it harder to extend insurance to all residents. The panel will also look at current contract negotiations between Partners, and other insurers to see whether the negotiations might also create artificially high rates that threaten healthcare reform.
Managed care stocks are ailing, as higher-than-expected medical costs have burned up health insurers' profits and companies have faced potential exposure to failed investment banks. And officials say insurers set themselves up for a tough year last year by pricing premiums too low to cover medical cost outlays. Competition also led insurers to take risks by pricing coverage low.
When more Vanderbilt University health clinics open next month at 100 Oaks Mall in Nashville, it could be a boon for businesses at the mall a few miles south of downtown, which has needed a shot in the arm for years. About 750 university employees will work there at least part-time, and 1,000 patients are expected to come through the 19 clinics each day. Vanderbilt's medical center agreed 18 months ago to lease 440,000 square feet of space at the mall. The university opened one clinic there last winter.
Two freshman lawmakers from Louisiana, both Republican physicians, could emerge as key opposition figures to President-elect Barack Obama's promised health reform initiative. The election of John Fleming in the 4th Congressional District and Bill Cassidy in the 6th gives the state three doctors, as the freshman lawmakers join Republican physician Charles Boustany of Lafayette, first elected in 2004. It's the largest medical contingent among the 50 state delegations for the 111th Congress, which convenes Tuesday.
Dozens of Cuban immigrants are evading prosecution for fleecing Medicare out of hundreds of millions of dollars by fleeing to their native country. The Miami Herald has reported that 56 fugitives absconded with at least $142 million in taxpayer funds.
A smoking ban in one Colorado city led to a dramatic drop in heart attack hospitalizations, according to a new study that is considered the best and longest-term research to show such a link. The rate of hospitalized cases dropped 41% three years after the ban of workplace smoking in Pueblo, CO, took effect. There was no such drop in two neighboring areas, and researchers believe it's a clear sign the ban was responsible.
The type 2 diabetes epidemic that continues to sweep across the United States has left an estimated 24 million Americans struggling with the disease, up more than 3 million people since 2005. And, of course, with the epidemic comes the wave of illnesses and disabilities brought on by diabetes—heart disease and stroke, blindness, amputations, kidney disease and nervous system damage.
For the one-quarter of Americans who live outside metropolitan areas, general surgeons are the essential ingredient that keeps full-service medical care within reach. But various forces—educational, medical and sociological—are making them an endangered species. In 1980, 945 newly trained general surgeons were certified in the United States. In 2008, the number was essentially the same—972—even though the population has increased by 79 million. In 1994, there were 7.1 general surgeons per 100,000 people. Today there are five per 100,000.
The proportion of people taking widely prescribed oral osteoporosis drugs who develop a nasty jaw condition may be much higher than previously thought, a new study suggests. Previous reports had indicated that the risk of developing osteonecrosis of the jaw from bisphosphonates in pill form were "negligible." But an assistant professor of clinical dentistry at the University of Southern California School of Dentistry in Los Angeles, says his clinic is seeing one to four new cases a week, according to a study in the January 1 issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association.
Stark, shared maternity rooms will go the way of outdated wards at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset and Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, where 161 new suites will each include a bassinet for the newborn and a private bathroom. The opening in September of 36 private rooms with hotel-like amenities at Stony Brook University Medical Center, the construction now under way of 88 single suites at Long Island Jewish and plans to build 73 such rooms at North Shore next year are part of a move toward single-occupancy maternity accommodations.
