Baptist Health South Florida has agreed to pay the U.S. government $7,775,000 to settle claims it paid excessive compensation to an oncology group that was a source of patient referrals to two of Baptist's hospitals. The payments were linked to a contract under which Oncology Hematology Group of South Florida provided physics and other radiation-related services to the two hospitals. Baptist Health discovered, investigated and voluntarily disclosed to the government the overpayment.
California health regulators have connected 14 more people affiliated with UCLA Medical Center to the improper viewing of celebrity medical records, bringing the number of current and former workers apparently implicated in the snooping scandal to 68. Each of the employees had signed a confidentiality agreement after being hired promising to access patient information "only in the performance of assigned duties and where required or permitted by law," according to investigators. UCLA officials have appointed a committee to review privacy policies and have pledged to retrain staff and improve computer systems to increase security.
Otis Story, the former chief executive of Atlanta-based Grady Memorial Hospital, has filed a lawsuit alleging that the hospital board chairwoman orchestrated his firing so she could assume his $600,000 a year job. The lawsuit contends that Pam Stephenson's conduct was "willful, malicious, fraudulent, wanton, oppressive, reckless," and says Stephenson's intent was to take Story down so she could increase her control over Grady hospital and increase her personal income. Story also sued the Grady board and is asking for $1.8 million in severance pay, a $60,000 signing bonus, and punitive damages.
The Pennsylvania Insurance Department will hold July hearings on the merger between Highmark and Independence Blue Cross. The three-day hearing is designed to hear from consumers and others about how the consolidation of the two huge insurers will affect the healthcare market.
New Jersey hospital workers rallied outside the Statehouse against Gov. Jon Corzine's plan to cut state hospital aid by 14 percent.
The protesters waved signs reading "Some Cuts Never Heal" and "Imagine a Day Without Us," and some wore surgical masks that read, "These cuts make me sick." Much of the hospital cuts would come from money given by the state to help treat New Jersey's 1.5 million uninsured residents. Protestors predicted that if the cuts are approved, it would result in shuttered hospitals, unemployed workers, eliminated services, longer drives and longer waits for patients.
Independence Blue Cross, Aetna, and four other insurers serving the Philadelphia region will start paying more than 150 family doctors and other caregivers to more closely track their patients' care and conditions. About 220,000 patients in Southeastern Pennsylvania will participate in the effort, which seeks to make caregivers more accessible to their patients through e-mail and phone calls and to educate them to take better care of themselves. The effort is part the Prescription for Pennsylvania proposal, which seeks to expand access to health coverage for the uninsured and reduce medical errors.
Greenwich Hospital is the third Connecticut hospital in the last year fined by the U.S. Department of Justice for overcharging Medicare program for certain cancer treatments. The hospital agreed to pay $605,274 in a settlement. Federal law allows hospitals to bill Medicare for one unit of chemotherapy per patient visit. Instead, Greenwich Hospital often billed Medicare for up to five units of chemotherapy per visit for bills sent to Medicare from 2000to 2004.
More than eight months after its entire surgical unit was shut down because of a reported spike in post-surgical deaths, Southern Illinois Veterans Affairs hospital has resumed some outpatient surgeries. The VA halted all surgeries at the facility when at least nine deaths between October 2006 and March 2007 were "directly attributable" to substandard care. There was no immediate timetable for resuming more complicated, inpatient surgeries at the hospital.
Seven percent of Americans said they or someone in their household decided to marry in the past year so they could obtain healthcare benefits via their spouse, according to a poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The survey also found that healthcare costs outranked housing costs, rising food prices and credit card bills as a source of concern. Of those surveyed, 28% said they had experienced serious problems because of the cost of healthcare.
A study has found that despite assertions that high malpractice rates are driving them out of the state, Massachusetts doctors are paying less than they were in 1990, after adjusting for inflation.
Massachusetts ranks fourth in the nation for money paid to settle malpractice cases. It is also one of 21 states described by the American Medical Association as being in a crisis because of high medical malpractice payments and lack of strict laws capping settlements.
