In 2007, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a broad comparison of death rates for heart attacks and heart failure, noting how hospitals compared with the national average without releasing the death rates themselves. But this year the agency decided to disclose them to consumers, and posted its new mortality estimates on the government website hospitalcompare.hhs.gov, along with more than two dozen other measures of how well hospitals meet patients' needs.
Nearly 75% of previously uninsured Massachusetts residents now have medical coverage under the state's campaign to extend health insurance to virtually everyone, according to a report. Since the program's launch in June 2006, 439,000 more people have enrolled in health insurance, and nearly half of them signed up for private insurance not funded by taxpayers. Before 2006, it was estimated that about 600,000 Massachusetts residents lacked health insurance. The expansion has spurred a substantial drop in patients seeking routine care in hospital emergency rooms, and the reduction is already saving the state millions of dollars, according to the report.
New York Gov. David A. Paterson has persuaded state lawmakers to cut spending by $1 billion over the next year and a half, a deal that includes cuts in aid to hospitals that will probably be in excess of $200 million over the next 18 months when federal matching funds are included. The issue of how to cut healthcare funding was one of the major sticking points that held up negotiations, lawmakers briefed on the talks said. Funding levels for hospitals proved particularly difficult to resolve because the Paterson's plan called for greater cuts than the healthcare industry and many lawmakers wanted.
Americans are struggling to pay medical bills and are accumulating medical debt at an increasing rate, according to a survey released by the Commonwealth Fund. The survey found two-thirds of the working-age population was uninsured, underinsured, reported a medical bill problem, or did not get needed healthcare because of cost in 2007. In addition, more than two in five adults in the 19-to-64 age group reported problems paying medical bills or had accumulated medical debt in 2007, up from one in three in 2005. Their difficulties included not being able to afford medical attention when needed, running up medical debts, or having to change their lifestyle to repay medical debts.
A federal judge has blocked California's 10% cut in Medi-Cal fees for doctors, dentists, and pharmacies, saying the measures appear to violate federal law and would worsen medical care for the poor. In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder said she was aware of California's gaping deficit, but she said the state has accepted federal funds for Medi-Cal and is bound to use them to provide quality healthcare to low-income residents. Richard Frankenstein, MD, president of the California Medical Association, said this was the third ruling in five years to conclude that "the state of California has put at risk the access to healthcare for millions of Californians by underfunding the Medi-Cal program."
Commonwealth Medical Group, one of the largest remaining independent physician groups in the Milwaukee area, is breaking up and its 31 physicians are joining Wheaton Franciscan Medical Group or Aurora Advanced Healthcare. Commonwealth Medical Group employs about 200 people and has clinics in seven Wisconsin municipalities. Its physicians all specialize in family-practice or internal medicine. Seventeen of the group's doctors are going to work for Wheaton Franciscan Medical Group and 14 of them are going to work for Aurora Advanced.
The Florida Board of Medicine has decided to drop a fee increase for consumers to get copies of their medical records from doctors. The proposal would have let doctors charge $1 per page, up from the current fee of $1 for the first 25 pages and 25 cents per page after that. A patient needing 100 pages would have paid $100, up from $43.75 now. The rejection of the fee increase comes after 10 months of study, and protests from consumer groups.
North Carolina's state-regulated hospital industry was allowed this year to bid for 41 more patient beds in Wake County, and now three competing hospital groups are vying for regulators' approval. WakeMed, Novant Health, and Rex Health have delivered multi-million dollar plans to the Certificate of Need section of the NC Department of Health and Human Services, which will determine which competitor gets the beds. The contest for the beds will be the first time new hospital capacity has been available in Wake County for the past three years.
When a hospital's patient data is compromised, the results are often costly and always embarrassing for those charged with protecting that information from prying eyes. +
NASCAR Nationwide Series driver Brad Coleman, of the No. 27 Ford Fusion Kimberly-Clark car, received 27 helping hands during the Kroger 200 at O'Reily Raceway Park. +
No leader of a hospital or any venture is going to have all the attributes of leadership. If you could, however, build a CEO from a parts supply of strengths, what might they be? +
The healthcare C-suite talks a lot about strategy. But what constitutes true strategic thinking, and how can leaders be sure that it's taking place at their organizations? +
With CMS reporting requirements continuing to increase, healthcare organizations may eventually be forced to choose between collecting data and providing patient care. +
