The North Carolina Medical Board has proposed posting all malpractice payments going back seven years as part of a new effort to broaden the kind of information patients can see about the doctors who treat them. Several critics, however, voiced opposition to the idea during a public hearing before the board on June 30. The board will use the comments from its hearing, along with e-mail messages and letters it has collected, to determine how it will publish the malpractice awards. In 2007, the North Carolina legislature gave the board the go-ahead to publicly post the payments but left it up to the board to decide what criteria to use.
Officials at Children's Hospital Oakland have abruptly laid off 84 people, including doctors, nurses and clinical workers who were escorted out of the facility by security. The cuts, affecting 3% of the hospital's workforce, are intended to save $10 million a year, and numerous departments were affected. Some departments are being almost entirely eliminated, sources said.
One year ago, San Francisco became the first city in the nation to attempt to provide universal healthcare to its residents. But now, some city residents wonder why the program is billed as universal when they're still getting turned away. Healthy San Francisco remains open only to individuals earning up to 300% of the federal poverty level, or roughly $31,000 a year, while the city awaits the outcome of a case regarding the legality of making employers contribute to the plan.
Edith Isabel Rodriguez writhed for 45 minutes on the floor of the emergency room lobby at Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital in Los Angeles as staffers walked past and a janitor mopped around her. The infamous incident in May 2007 was captured by a security camera, but the Los Angeles County has insisted for more than a year that the tape is "confidential, official information." Now, however, excerpts of the grainy video were sent anonymously to the Los Angeles Times and are available on the newspaper's website.
The Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council is nationally known for reporting on the quality and cost of medical care across the state. But despite wide support from business and labor unions, nearly all of the council's 43 staff members have been terminated due to a political tussle between Gov. Rendell and Senate Republicans over two disputes: giving uninsured Pennsylvanians access to affordable coverage and subsidies of part of doctors medical malpractice insurance.
Silver Cross Hospital has won permission from the state of Illinois to move from its aging campus in Joliet to a new, $398 million facility in New Lenox. The approval came despite spirited opposition from local officials who accuse the hospital of abandoning a poor black neighborhood for a wealthier white one. But supporters said the move would mean better healthcare for residents throughout the region, including those who already depend on Silver Cross.
A check forgery ring targeted patients at Boston-based New England Baptist Hospital, according to hospital and law enforcement officials. The forgers used private checking account information and stole identities to take as much as $3,000 from each victim. So far, nine victims have been identified by the hospital, but more may have been targeted, officials said.
Two health trade groups will begin airing dueling ads in their fight over Medicare as lawmakers face pressure to reverse scheduled cuts in doctor fees. America's Health Insurance Plans' ads say reducing payments to UnitedHealth Group Inc. and other private insurers through Medicare Advantage could push millions of seniors out of their current coverage. On the other side, the American Medical Association is airing new television and radio ads in six states that targets a group of senators who blocked action on the proposed legislation.
The Bush administration has announced it is freezing a scheduled 10% fee cut for doctors who treat Medicare patients, giving Congress time to act to prevent the cuts when lawmakers return from a July 4 recess. Kevin Schweers, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will hold doctors' Medicare claims for services delivered on or after July 1. Claims for services received on or before June 30 will be processed as usual, he said. Congress, not willing to face millions of angry seniors at the polls in November, will almost certainly act quickly when it returns to Washington to prevent the cuts in payments for doctors who treat Medicare patients.
Alexandria, VA-based SureScripts and St. Paul, MN-based RxHub, the nation's two electronic prescription networks, plan to announce that they are merging in an effort to encourage the adoption of their technology by doctors and patients. The companies say they hope the broader use of the technology will cut down on costs and medical mistakes. For about seven years, the firms have tried to persuade doctors to dump handwritten prescriptions in favor of sending prescriptions electronically, but doctors have been slow to adopt.
