A growing number of people across Middle Tennessee are seeking care at retail clinics that promise shorter waits and lower fees for treating common illnesses. The fast growth of the concept is drawing concern from doctors about issues such as safety of patients at the clinics staffed mostly by nurse practitioners. The Tennessee Medical Association had planned to propose new rules to the state's Board of Medical Examiners that would have required that a supervising doctor be within 30 miles of a clinic and spend more time there.
A Clarksville, TN, health clinic geared toward assisting uninsured patients helped 226 patients during its first three weeks of operation, clinic officials said. Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Care's main clinic is in Nashville, and the Clarksville satellite clinic opened at the beginning of 2008.
Although the nation's hospitals have enjoyed steady and even improving finances in recent years, they could see some rough times ahead, according to a report from Moody's Investors Service.Moody's provides financial ratings and evaluates debt of the nation's nonprofit hospitals, and said its "stable" outlook for 2008 will be less certain in 2009 and 2010 should the economy take a turn for the worse.
Brockton (MA) Hospital's Signature Healthcare program has created a community-based network of doctors on the South Shore of Massachusetts who share patient medical records and databases. The goal of the network is to keep local more patients who might otherwise go to Boston for care, particularly from specialists.
Spending on a Massachusetts health insurance initiative would rise by more than $400 million in 2009 due primarily to projected growth in the number of people signing up for state-subsidized insurance, which now far exceeds earlier estimates. Although the price tag is ballooning, Gov. Deval Patrick has reaffirmed the state's commitment to ensuring that nearly every resident is covered.
Health plans are drawing scrutiny for offering financial incentives to entice doctors to prescribe cheaper generic medicines. Health plans say the goal is to save patients, employers and insurers money, and many doctors argue that it's only right to reimburse them for spending time evaluating whether a cheaper generic alternative is better or just as good. But Medical societies are concerned that such rewards may put doctors in the ethically questionable position of taking a payment that is unknown to patients.
A study has found that when women in Medicare managed-care plans were asked to contribute a small co-pay, 8 percent of the women decided to forgo mammograms altogether. Insurance plans are increasingly instituting cost-sharing in the form of co-pays with the hope that consumers will consider cost before getting healthcare services. Although the goal is that people will reconsider potentially unnecessary procedures or medicines but not forgo essential services, the study illustrates it does not always work out that way.
House Democrats have again failed to override President Bush's veto of a proposed $35 billion expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. The vote left backers of the legislation about 15 votes short of the two-thirds majority of lawmakers voting necessary for an override. Democrats had argued that the nation's current economic troubles made expanding SCHIP--which provides subsidized health insurance to children of the working poor--all the more important.
Democratic voters are far more dissatisfied with the U.S. healthcare system than their Republican counterparts and are more likely to support a increase in government spending to expand health coverage, according to a report from health and political analysts.
Death rates climbed significantly higher than expected at 12 Oregon hospitals, according to recently released state data. For example, among patients undergoing cardiac catheterization, death rates were higher than average at OHSU Hospital, Willamette Valley Medical Center in McMinnville and Merle West Medical Center in Klamath Falls. For the past three years, the Office for Oregon Health Policy and Research has posted hospital death rates for selected procedures in which there is some evidence that higher death rates may result from poorer care quality. The state's hospital quality indicators Web site also highlights hospitals' experience with procedures, such as open-heart surgery, in which more practiced centers tend to show better outcomes.
