In health-policy circles, there has been a lot of talk in recent years about "consumer-directed health care" and "price transparency." Some say that Americans might spend less on healthcare if they could figure out, in advance, how much things cost. For all the talk, though, many nascent attempts to help consumers compare prices are deeply flawed, some analysts say.
When public hearings on the proposed merger of Pennsylvania's two largest health insurers begin, speakers opposed to the deal are sure to complain that a combination of Independence Blue Cross and Highmark Inc. would quash competition. In the Philadelphia marketplace, Independence Blue Cross dominates its competitors,but both it and Highmark say they need to get bigger to fend off national insurers such as Aetna Inc.
The transfer of Blue Island, IL-based St. Francis Hospital to a new ownership group is being put on a fast track to help stem the tide of employees who have been leaving because of uncertainty about the hospital's future. MSMC Investors LLC hopes to buy the hospital from SSM Health Care. SSM announced in April it could no longer afford to operate the facility because of its large numbers of uninsured and underinsured patients.
The University of Chicago Medical Center is preparing to embark on a $700 million expansion, and has settled on a final design for a new hospital pavilion. The design will use a modular design executives say allows for flexibility should future renovations be needed. Included in the new pavilion's features are 80 private patient rooms as well as 24 intensive care beds on each of the top three floors. Another floor will house 24 operating rooms.
At UMass Memorial Medical Center, an effort is underway to trim costs by using radio frequency identification, or RFID. Proponents say it might save lives and money by preventing medical mistakes and speeding the recall of defective products.
Sen. Hillary Clinton's exit from the presidential race will deal a blow to supporters of the idea that all Americans be required to buy or have health insurance. That mandate has been an important tenet of Sen. Clinton's healthcare plan and the only substantive difference from Sen. Barack Obama's health policy. The issue had become a dominant issue in the national discussion over how to expand coverage to the country's nearly 50 million uninsured, but with Clinton out of the race the concept has lost its most prominent platform.
Kaiser Permanente is endorsing the drive toward consumer-controlled personal health records in a partnership with Microsoft. The partnership will begin with a pilot project open to Kaiser's 156,000 employees, which will run until November. If successful, the product linking Kaiser's patient information with Microsoft's Health Vault personal health-record service will be offered to Kaiser's 8.7 million members.
Beginning in October, New York hospitals won't be able to bill Medicaid for "never events" such as mistakes during surgery, medication errors and other deadly complications caused by preventable hospital blunders. The goal is to shift the burden to hospitals, practices and doctors if they make a dangerous mistake, and the state health department expects to save $6 million from the change. New York's Medicaid program is among the most expensive in the nation, costing taxpayers $47 billion annually.
Democrats have long been trying to stop the proliferation of doctor-owned hospitals, saying they drive up costs by encouraging doctors to order more procedures. Now Democrats in Congress are moving to impose new restrictions on these hospitals, but they have carved out exemptions for a few institutions represented by influential senators and well-connected lobbyists. The special treatment for a handful of hospitals has drawn criticism from conservative Republicans, who support unfettered growth of doctor-owned hospitals, and liberal Democrats who favor rules with no exceptions.
Virginia-based hospital chain Inova Health System has abandoned its plans to merge with Prince William Hospital due to a legal challenge from the Federal Trade Commission. The commission and Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell had filed a legal challenge against the merger, saying it would violate federal antitrust laws and lead to increased costs and reduced coverage for Northern Virginians. The merger was expected to be completed at the end of May.
