In the year since a Prince George's County boy died of a dental infection, lawmakers say Maryland has begun addressing the structural problems and funding shortages that are blamed for breakdowns in the state's Medicaid system. At a congressional hearing, Maryland officials won praise for initiating changes in the troubled program, which in recent years provided dental services to fewer than one-third of the 500,000 poor children statewide entitled to care.
Tennessee Titans Owner K.S. "Bud" Adams, Jr. and his wife, Nancy, have announced a $500,000 grant from the Titans Foundation to the Baptist Hospital Foundation for the hospital's obstetrics expansion project. The third floor Obstetrics Family Waiting Area and will now be known as the Bud & Nancy Adams and Tennessee Titans Family Waiting Area, said Bernie Sherry, President and CEO of Baptist Hospital.
Baxter International Inc.'s investigation into the cause of deaths and allergic reactions linked to its blood-thinner heparin is focusing on variations in batches of the active ingredient for the drug, most of which were supplied by a Chinese manufacturing facility co-owned by a Wisconsin company. Baxter said the active ingredient for its heparin was supplied by Scientific Protein Laboratories LLC, a Waunakee, WI, company with a manufacturing facility there and a joint-venture operation called Changzhou SPL in Changzhou, China.
Emerson Hospital of Concord, MA is conducting an investigation into an accounting error that caused it to overstate its 2006 financial results. The disclosure comes as the hospital's finances appear to be deteriorating. It posted solid profit margins and surpluses in fiscal years 2004, 2005, and 2006. But in the nine months that ended last July, the hospital lost money providing healthcare and avoided losses only because of other income, such as profits on its investments.
Carolinas Medical Center is seeking regulatory approval to renovate four Caesarian-section rooms, eight of 20 delivery rooms and 31 of 72 postpartum rooms. The proposed $13.2 million project also would add three delivery rooms. In addition, the facility is seeking approval to transfer maternity services from four locations to the eighth floor of the hospital in midtown Charlotte.
The University of South Florida medical school wants to build its own teaching hospital to recruit more high-profile faculty members, increase the number of its residents and generate revenue. A bill filed for the upcoming legislative would allow USF to build a hospital on its campus without getting key permission from state regulators. USF medical school is one of the few medical schools in America that doesn't have its own hospital, said a Florida legislator who sponsored the bill.
Despite possible competition from a planned hospital in Poinciana, the Heart of Florida Regional Medical Center in Davenport is continuing to expand. Heart of Florida will add a fourth and fifth floor to increase its services and number of beds to keep up with the rapidly growing population in Polk County. The fourth floor alone will make way for more surgery rooms and add more than 100 new beds. It is scheduled to open in August 2008.
Tenet Healthcare Corp. is asking patients nationwide to watch for credit fraud since police arrested an employee for stealing patient information. The former employee worked in Tenet's billing office in Frisco, Texas, where he had access to 40,000 of the office's 4 million accounts. He was arrested Nov. 25, 2007, when he tried to open a Costco credit card using a state ID with fraudulent information, police said.
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's net profit dropped 70 percent in the first six months of this fiscal year. The decrease is due largely to a sizable drop in its investment income, a $10 million outlay to a city tuition program and depreciation costs from the system's many improvement projects. Officials representing the system, however, are asking that attention be paid to a measure of cash flow showing the nonprofit earning $260 million before interest expense, depreciation and amortization.
North Carolina leaders are vowing to pay for hospital tests done on patients examined for sexual assault. Under the state's current system, hospitals bill a patient's private insurer for a rape exam. The state sets aside about $258,000 a year to help cover rape kit exams for uninsured people. Reimbursements, however, are capped at $1,000, even though the average bill tops $1,600. While some hospitals forgive the balance, others do not.
