Despite healthcare industry challenges such as a rising number of uninsured people and fewer employers offering health benefits, entrepreneurs such as Gary C. Bell are note discouraged from getting into the business. "People will always need help, and it's hospitals' responsibility to take care of them," said Bell, who was in attendance at a panel discussion sponsored by the Nashville Health Care Council.
A flurry of Chicago-area hospitals discussing plans to merge or seek buyouts. The trend reflects a push by smaller hospitals to combine with larger providers to gain market share and clout with insurance companies who pay for the hospital's services, help fund expansions or deal with the rising number of uninsured patients. It's also easier to merge instead of going through regulatory and financial hurdles when building, analysts say.
The American Medical Association says it will this year spend about $15 million on its Voice for the Uninsured Campaign-- tripling the amount it spends to promote its campaign for the uninsured. In 2007, the first phase of the campaign cost the AMA about $5 million from the August launch through the end of the year.
Members of the newly formed Massachusetts Prescription Reform Coalition will unveil a new effort to rein in the pharmaceutical industry's marketing efforts. Members of the coalition that rapid growth in the cost of prescription drugs threatens the state's new healthcare law and other efforts to extend insurance coverage to all residents.
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston has launched a quality-improvement effort aimed at eliminating within four years all harm to patients that it considers preventable. The hospital has already begun measuring ways in which they endanger patients and plan to publish the results quarterly. Currently, nationwide surveys show Beth Israel Deaconess ranks in the top 12 percent for patient satisfaction, and the goal is to reach the top 2 percent.
Britain has announced that a series of procedural changes at hospitals could boost the rate of organ donation by 50 percent within five years. A task force behind the report issued 14 recommendations to make organ donation a standard part of hospital procedure.
State health officials warn Oregonians seeking to join the Oregon Health Plan to be wary of telephone solicitations by callers posing as state workers and asking for a Social Security number. The issue is of special concern this month, because the Oregon Health Plan is accepting new enrollees for its OHP Standard benefit package for the first time since mid-2004.
CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield launched a new program designed to reward physicians as 7 percent extra for meeting a variety of standards of care. Those measures are a mix of process (if women get needed mammograms), service (if there are weekend or evening hours) and outcomes (if patients lower their cholesterol). The standards for bonus pay are taken from national organizations such as Medicare, medical specialty societies and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), the accreditation body for health insurers.
University Hospitals plans to put more Clevelanders to work under terms of novel deal that calls for small union and non-union companies to form partnerships large enough to tackle projects they couldn't do on their own. The agreement also calls for the large healthcare provider to set goals for hiring minority- and female-owned enterprises.
The AFL-CIO launched a large online survey Tuesday to find out how the public and national, state and locally elected officials rate the U.S. healthcare system. The group said it hopes to reach at least 20,000 people. As a test on Monday, the survey was sent to 5,000 people listed on one of its electronic databases. More than 1,000 people responded.
