In the healthcare bill being debated in the Senate, a tax—which would be paid by the customer but collected by doctors—would be levied on any cosmetic surgery that is not necessary to address deformities arising from congenital abnormalities, personal injuries resulting from an accident or trauma, or disfiguring diseases. The proposal has outraged plastic surgeons, who say they are being singled out because of an outdated perception that people who have cosmetic procedures are well-to-do.
The Chinese government launched a three-year, 850-billion-yuan ($124-billion) effort earlier this year to rebuild the country's crumbling healthcare system. China once provided rudimentary but universal care to everyone, but as the country shifted from socialism to a market economy over the past 30 years, healthcare frayed, the Associated Press reports. Medical costs soared faster than incomes, and treatment today depends on one's ability to pay. Nearly a third of the poor say that health is the most important cause of their poverty, according to the World Health Organization.
North Texas health industry leaders will gather for a meeting to see if they can shake Dallas out of its declining health and soaring medical spending. One option they'll hear about, called an accountable-care organization, attacks those problems by pushing family doctors, hospitals, surgeons, and other specialists to work together using evidence-based medicine and even sharing payments, the Dallas Morning News reports. Baylor Health Care System is already embracing such an approach. Baylor says it will convert its 13 hospitals and 4,500 network physicians into an accountable-care organization by 2015.
Fewer U.S. patients are traveling abroad for non-emergency medical procedures, such as hip replacements or cosmetic surgery, because of the recession. From 2007 to 2009, the number of Americans traveling abroad for elective medical procedures is expected to have fallen as much as 13.6%, according to a report by the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. Rising transportation costs and decreased consumer incomes and savings probably contributed to the fall in medical tourism, the report says.
A California spine surgeon who leads a medical ethics organization has written to the Army Surgeon General raising questions about a 2002 Army study that used Medtronic spine products on soldiers in ways not approved by federal regulators. One of the physicians leading the study at Walter Reed Army Medical Center was David Polly, MD, now chief of the spine unit at the University of Minnesota's Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Although Polly was not a Medtronic consultant while at Walter Reed, his subsequent relationship with the medical device giant has come under scrutiny from congressional investigators after he was paid at least $1.2 million by the company between 2003 and 2007, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean have scheduled an announcement that is expected to feature architectural renderings of a redesigned Nashville Convention Center and a lease agreement with the Dallas-based company planning to open a medical trade center in the city. The announcement is billed as "a major investment linked to healthcare in downtown Nashville." Dallas-based Market Center Management Co. has been looking at the convention center and other downtown properties as potential sites for the medical trade center, which would showcase healthcare products and services.
An insurance contract dispute could mean that thousands of people won't be able to use Atlanta-based Grady Hospital for medical treatment in a few weeks. Grady Health System, which runs the hospital, will no longer participate in the Peach State Health Plan Network. Officials said while the contract between the state and Grady ends, patients can continue to receive services at Grady Hospital until the end of the year. Officials said they've been in talks for months, but no agreement was reached.
A growing subset of pharmacists, called clinical pharmacists, provide direct care and use their expertise to ensure that patients receive the most appropriate medications and that they take them properly. These professionals often spend time with patients that physicians cannot, and evidence shows that when clinical pharmacists collaborate with physicians, they improve health outcomes. In addition, with their extensive knowledge of available drugs, pharmacists can help to save money by using the most cost-effective ones.
Medical identity theft is on the rise and expected to worsen, the Wall Street Journal reports. The problem has grown during the recession as more uninsured people use the coverage of a friend, relative, or even a stranger to get care. Of particular concern is the fact that most of the fraud is committed by people who pay medical workers for patients' information. In one case, a front-desk clerk at a medical clinic in Florida downloaded the personal information of more than 1,100 Medicare patients and gave it to a cousin, who made $2.8 million in false Medicare claims.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Boston-based Caritas Christi Health Care, a chain of six community hospitals in eastern Massachusetts, announced they have signed a new five-year "alternative quality contract." The contract includes a global payment system in which hospitals will be paid fixed amounts based on the estimated annual costs of patients' care instead of the fee-for-service system in which providers bill insurers for individual visits and procedures. It also includes incentives to improve the quality and affordability of care.
