Six years after Chicago's storied Mercy Hospital and Medical Center teetered on the brink of financial collapse, Sister Sheila Lyne no longer has to pray for money to pay bondholders. The 72-year-old nun is in her second stint as chief executive of Chicago's oldest chartered hospital, and has guided the 370-bed facility through perhaps its most difficult period since it was founded. The hospital is now poised to embark on one of its biggest expansions in years, a $24 million capital improvement plan that includes renovating the cardiac intensive care floor, a gastrointestinal procedure lab and the obstetrics unit, which will convert to all private rooms to meet the needs of a projected doubling to 4,000 births a year.
Democrats have shaped a set of principles that commits the party to guaranteed healthcare for all. Barack Obama has stopped short of proposing to mandate health coverage for all, but aims to achieve something close to universal coverage by making insurance more affordable and helping struggling families pay for it. The Democratic party now declares itself "united behind a commitment that every American man, woman and child be guaranteed to have affordable, comprehensive healthcare."
JFK Medical Center in Edison, NJ, is looking to expand as Muhlenberg Regional Medical Center in Plainfield prepares to close.
Solaris Health System, which runs both hospitals, is seeking a $169 million bond issue to fund an expansion at JFK. Much of the money will go toward debt-restructuring, but $22.2 million will pay for capital improvements, including space for another 59 inpatient beds.
Steven Chang, a former Stanford resident now at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, reserves a particular passion for Epocrates Rx, free software created by a San Mateo company that provides clinicians with prescription drug and formulary information such as dosage levels, contraindications, and insurer co-payment amounts. But when he tried to combine that passion with the iPhone he hit a virtual wall. In addition to preferring the iPhone, Chang was tired of juggling multiple devices as he moved around the clinic. Thus began a digital crusade by the 30-year-old primary-care physician.
Five more hospitals have joined Connecticut's Charter Oak Health Plan, expanding a provider network that has been criticized by some lawmakers as inadequate. The newly enrolled hospitals include Yale-New Haven Hospital, Bridgeport Hospital, Greenwich Hospital, Saint Francis Care in Hartford and the University of Connecticut Health Center/John Dempsey Hospital Farmington. They join the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven and Saint Mary's Hospital in Waterbury.
Federal regulators are balking at a Massachusetts proposal to increase Medicaid spending by up to $1 billion a year over the next three years, prompting the state to request another two-week extension of its healthcare funding package. The federal payments, which are crucial for keeping the state's landmark health insurance law afloat, were set to expire June 30. But the state has received three extensions, and a fourth would postpone the deadline for reaching an agreement until Aug. 25. At stake in the negotiations between state and federal officials is more than $11 billion in federal funds over three years, money earmarked for dozens of healthcare programs in Massachusetts.
Changes are coming to "private fee for service" plans, a fast-growing and controversial type of Medicare coverage. Private fee for service plans are a type of privately-run Medicare alternative known as Medicare Advantage. Like other Advantage plans, PFFS plans wrap coverage of physician and hospital services in one package, sometimes with additional benefits such as vision care. But unlike other Advantage plans, they don't have a network of doctors and hospitals beyond which coverage may be limited. That has been a big selling point to beneficiaries, but that aspect is changing.
Washington, DC, officials are enforcing new guidelines for prescription drugs for thousands of Medicaid patients, and many doctors are complaining that it is more difficult for sick people to receive some medicines and that some people's health is being endangered. A new pharmacy benefits contractor for the District has began requiring many patients to have prescriptions for some pain medication and gastrointestinal drugs preapproved by District Medicaid officials. The result has been delays of several days for some patients to receive medicine.
Holy Cross Hospital's announcement that it hopes to build a hospital in Germantown, MD, is just the latest example of a baby boomer-fueled building frenzy sweeping the healthcare industry in Maryland's Montgomery County. Over the past several years, all five of Montgomery's major medical centers have decided to expand, upgrade their facilities or build new ones. What's happening in the county mirrors a national trend, fueled by concerns that aging baby boomers will put new demands on the healthcare system and that old hospital buildings can no longer accommodate changing and complex medical technologies, experts say.
Retail clinics could soon overshadow primary care physician offices, as convenience for patients and rising healthcare costs are pushing the traditional venue out of the picture. +
Craig Sammit, MD, MBA, president and CEO of Dean Health System in Madison, WI, discusses his two-year effort to identify and develop more physicians for leadership roles within the organization. +
