While most people have heard about the nationwide nursing shortage, the country is also experiencing a shortage of trained workers in the allied health professions such as respiratory care practitioners, medical transcriptionists, radiographers, and about 200 other occupations that make up about 60% of healthcare workers. According to a recent study, California and its burgeoning population lags behind the rest of the nation in the number of allied health professionals per capita.
The Georgia Department of Community Health has denied allegations by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia that state officials failed to follow established rules in deciding to reduce the number of insurers that cover nearly 700,000 teachers and other state employees and their dependents. The state eliminated Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia as an insurance provider, along with Kaiser. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia said that the department's decision to reduce insurer options to Cigna and United Healthcare illegally cut out Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia and Kaiser. DCH spokeswoman Matia Edwards denied the claim, saying the decision to reduce the number of insurance provider options would save the state plan more than $700 million over five years.
To help children come to terms with their treatment, hospitals across the country are having young patients act out medical procedures on dolls. Their are more than 400 such programs in the United States and Canada, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. The idea is to lessen the terror that kids may feel before a scary procedure, and research shows that structured play can reduce stress. In the short term, specialists say that working with a petrified child before a minor procedure can also help avoid sedation.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. has stopped marketing an insurance plan to Massachusetts senior citizens with disabilities after state officials received dozens of complaints that the company was using abusive and misleading sales tactics. Senior citizen advocates said some UnitedHealth sales representatives refused to leave people's homes without getting a signature on a policy, and added others misrepresented the plan by claiming it would pay for care that is actually not covered. In addition, the advocates said, some agents repeatedly called seniors, despite requests from family members that they stop.
In this piece from the Wall Street Journal health blog, the author asks whether long emergency room waits are good for a hospital's bottom line. The author notes that patients who show up at the emergency room are less likely than patients admitted to the hospital by a staff physician to need lucrative, procedure-driven care. Because a hospital only has so many inpatient beds, it may make economic sense to fill the beds up with the lucrative, well-insured patients admitted by staff physicians, he notes.
Like airlines that offer first-class and coach sections, dermatology is becoming a two-tier business in which higher-paying customers receive greater pampering. In some dermatologists' offices, free spending cosmetic patients are given appointments more quickly than medical patients for whom health insurance pays fixed reimbursement fees. In other offices, cosmetic patients spend more time with a doctor, and sometimes doctors employ a special receptionist, called a cosmetic concierge, for their beauty patients. Some say the trend creates the message that the cosmetic patient is more important than the medical patient.
Humana customers now have access to Kindred Healthcare nursing centers in 26 states. Kindred and its subsidiaries currently operate 646 locations in 40 states. The agreement, which became active June 1, offers full access to 223 Kindred nursing centers for members of Humana's commercial insurance and Medicare Advantage plans.
St. Luke's Health System plans to end its provider network contract with UnitedHealthcare early next year, although the insurer hopes to negotiate a new contract. According to officials at the health system, the partnership's end was prompted by United's inconsistent reimbursement rates that have made it difficult for St. Luke's to offer "the quality of care it is committed to."
Numerous Birmingham, AL-area hospitals are starting to branch out from the urban core and locate in surrounding suburbs, but competition among them guarantees that all such moves will be long and drawn out through the state regulatory process. The regulatory process is intended to keep healthcare costs in check by preventing unnecessary duplication of services, but its critics believe it does the opposite by stifling competition.
Winston-Salem-based hospital chain Novant Health wants to build a 46-bed, $110 million hospital in Holly Springs, NC, but it will face a battle to win approval from the state. Novant Health announced plans for the Holly Springs hospital that would serve the town and southwest Wake County. If Novant wins approval, it would hire 200 to 300 people and open in 2012. It plans to submit its application to state regulators Aug. 15, but approval will likely be hard-fought because the plan would use up all the new hospital beds that state regulators have allocated for Wake County.
