Caritas Christi Health Care representatives said Ascension Health of St. Louis remains committed to investing in the six-hospital chain, which is owned by the Archdiocese of Boston. The Caritas representatives said the chain is still planning to refinance its existing debt of about $250 million, and that Ascension will buy $100 million of additional bonds to pay for expansions and new equipment. The finance deal is expected to proceed when conditions improve in the credit markets, said the representatives.
Thousands of Zimbabweans are dying, uncounted and out of sight in a silent emergency as hospitals shut, clinics run out of drugs and most cannot afford private medical care, health groups say. The British charity Oxfam agreed with estimates of thousands of unreported deaths due to the collapse of the health system and says the situation will get worse with the onset of the rainy season, which lasts until February.
Policymakers and healthcare experts envision a shortage of family medicine doctors and geriatricians to care for an aging population. Healthcare experts and advocates for the elderly say the problem is partly a reflection of how worried physicians are about changes in reimbursement rates from the federal government. Some physicians say they are afraid of accepting new Medicare patients and discovering later that the amount they receive for treating them will be decreased. Exacerbating those worries are concerns about the slow pace of reimbursement and the paperwork it requires. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recently reported that nearly 30% of the 2.6 million Medicare beneficiaries seeking a new primary care physician between September 2007 and October 2008 had trouble finding one, up from 25% in 2005.
It can be very difficult to close or shrink U.S. hospitals, even when there is evidence they are providing costly and below-average care. Unlike some other nations, the United States has no federal agency charged with hospital oversight. Instead, it relies on a patchwork of state health departments and the Joint Commission that sets basic quality standards for the nation. Hospitals are rarely closed or hit with significant financial penalties for hurting patients.
As he gears up for major health reform legislation next year, President-elect Barack Obama is encouraging average Americans to host informal gatherings to brainstorm about how to improve the U.S. system. The sessions are to be held Dec. 15 to Dec. 31. Former senator Thomas A. Daschle, Obama's point person on health, will attend at least one and prepare a detailed report, complete with video, to present to the next president.
Georgia hospitals, doctors, and other medical providers are reporting financial pain from an increase in patients who can't pay bills, or who postpone care. That trend stems, in part, from the rise in Georgia's unemployment rate, which has swelled the ranks of those without health insurance. In addition, as many Americans who have insurance face higher deductibles and other out-of-pocket costs, it makes medical bills harder to pay.
Anaheim (CA) General Hospital, which cares for a large share of Orange County's poor, has lost its national quality accreditation in the wake of scores of safety citations by three sets of regulators. The 143-bed hospital has been struggling financially and the loss in standing could make matters worse by jeopardizing its ability to attract privately insured patients.
Many hospitals have stopped providing emergency response advanced life support, ceding the job to local fire departments or private ambulance services. But not Concord, MA-based Emerson Hospital. The 177-bed facility is working to make sure its own emergency team is ready to answer the call for residents of Concord and the dozen communities closest to it—despite the heavy financial burden as reimbursement from health insurance companies has dramatically declined.
Clarian Health, Indianapolis' largest hospital system, is preparing to trim jobs in early 2009 in response to investment losses from the nation's economic downturn. Clarian plans to cut operating expenses by about 5% in 2009—a move that will include cutting an unspecified number of salaried jobs.
Advanced-practice nurses are lobbying Ohio lawmakers to let them prescribe more drugs, including Percocet, used for pain management, and Ritalin, prescribed to children with attention deficit disorder. Under current law, Ohio's advanced-practice nurses can prescribe a one-day supply of pain medications to a terminally ill patient, but only if a doctor wrote the original prescription.
