The U.S. government is investigating a relationship between Chicago’s Northwestern Memorial Hospital and its affiliated doctor practice, the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation. Northwestern Memorial HealthCare and its subsidiaries Northwestern Memorial Hospital and Northwestern Memorial Foundation have each received a subpoena from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General that requests information regarding the structuring of various arrangements between Northwestern Memorial and the Northwestern Medical Faculty Foundation.
The U.S. economic recession is forcing many Massachusetts hospitals to reconsider ambitious expansion projects, put major purchases on hold, and eliminate jobs as revenues and investments shrink. Tight credit markets have made it difficult to borrow money, investment income used to supplement medical revenues has withered or turned to losses, and patients are putting off elective surgery because of high deductibles and copayments, hospital officials say. The healthcare cutbacks could produce a ripple effect extending to nursing agencies, equipment suppliers, and other businesses that support hospitals.
The debate over a proposed hospital has spread to the Leesburg (VA) Town Council, as members voiced concern that the project could affect Inova Loudoun Hospital's Leesburg campus. The Loudoun County Board of Supervisors has until May to decide whether to allow HCA Virginia to build the 164-bed Broadlands Regional Medical Center. Council members, expressing concern that Inova might reduce its Loudoun operations if its competitor's project is approved, passed a resolution expressing support for maintaining and expanding the Leesburg facility. Supervisors said the Inova medical center is vital to the town's economy and its efforts to attract a university campus.
The former chief executive of the City of Angels Medical Center has pleaded guilty to paying illegal kickbacks in what authorities described as a massive scheme to defraud taxpayer-funded healthcare programs of millions of dollars by recruiting homeless patients for unnecessary medical services. Rudra Sabaratnam, MD, admitted to paying approximately $493,000 in kickbacks to the owner of a skid row-based recruiting storefront facility, and others to recruit homeless patients and take them to the hospital for unnecessary services.
Hospital emergency rooms are facing their own epidemic: Long waits. Patients spending hours or days on beds in ER hallways. Shortages of specialists willing to see emergency patients. The cause is too many patients and not enough ER capacity, but some hospitals are finding ways to make their emergency rooms more efficient while maintaining safety.
Hospital officials remain tight-lipped about why the merger of Springield, IL-based Hospital Sisters Health System and St. Anthony's Health System of Alton fell through. The move also calls off the $70 million expansion project already under way at St. Anthony's. "We're not going to go into the why the affiliation didn't happen," said Hospital Sisters spokesman Dave Urbanek. "It wasn't the right time for this kind of affiliation between the two systems."
After notifitying the state Health Department that it would close immediately, Aliquippa, PA's Commonwealth Medical Center's operating license was revoked. The closure comes a week after the 96-bed facility filed for bankruptcy. The state last month forced the hospital to stop accepting new patients because it violated licensing standards and was short on essential supplies and equipment. The hospital did not meet the state's requirements to lift the ban by Dec. 1.
Since the beginning of 2006, the pediatric department at New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences had conducted 42 clinical trials, involving 4,142 children. There were 49 deaths that resulted from these trials, and the news set off a firestorm. Though hospital officials documented that the deaths were due to underlying illnesses, even fellow researchers wondered why an overburdened public hospital, which handles about 500 pediatric outpatients a day, was taking on the extra work of clinical trials.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has announced that it has approved $150 million for Hurricane Katrina-related damage to Charity Hospital. The amount is far less than the $492 million that Louisiana claims the damage is worth but considerably more than the $23 million that FEMA previously had said it was willing to pay. The federal reimbursement is critical to the state's efforts to pay for a $1.2 billion teaching hospital it wants to build in downtown New Orleans. Any money the federal government puts up reduces the amount of debt that the new hospital must carry.
A Sacramento Superior Court judge recently affirmed the authority of the state Department of Managed Health Care to deem balance billing an unfair practice. The California Medical Association, which sued to stop the regulation, says it will appeal. The California Supreme Court is also about to weigh in on the practice: It is expected to rule soon on a Southern California dispute between two medical groups that could partly answer the question of whether balance billing is legal.
