Penalties for Massachusetts residents who can afford health insurance but do not purchase it in 2008 could quadruple compared with the maximum penalty in 2007, according to draft regulations released by the Department of Revenue.
When Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston opens its new cardiovascular wing in May, all 136 rooms will include a family sleeping area. Brigham is one of a growing number of U.S. hospitals experimenting with open access or nearly open access for families of adult ICU patients.
Emergency room doctors are prescribing strong narcotics more often to patients who complain of pain, but minorities are less likely to get them than whites, according to a study. The analysis of more than 150,000 emergency room visits over 13 years found differences in prescribing by race and ethnicity in both urban and rural hospitals.
Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center in Baltimore are developing a saliva test that could spot diseases such as mouth and throat cancer in heavy smokers, heavy drinkers and others at high risk. The screening test focuses on finding cells with genetic signatures suggesting the presence of these cancers.
Uninsured people 55 and older, particularly those with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, significantly reduce their risk of declining health after they enroll in Medicare at 65, according to research.
Four regional telehealth networks that will leverage the speed and connections of OSCnet are among 69 projects nationwide receiving $417 million in federal funding to "significantly increase access to acute, primary and preventive health care in rural America." These four projects will receive more than $35,4 million over three years, representing the largest state share of funding among the 42 states and three United States territories garnering awards through the Federal Communications Commission's Rural Health Care Pilot Programme.
Sage Software joined a list of petitioners urging the White House and President George W. Bush to revise regulations which prohibit controlled drugs from being electronically prescribed. According to a letter from the e-Prescribing Controlled Substances Coalition, such regulations are negatively impacting the adoption of electronic prescribing and foregoing potential significant efficiencies e-prescribing brings to healthcare. Sage Software is among those submitting the letter along with large healthcare-related organizations such as BlueCross BlueShield, CVS, American Society of Consultant Pharmacists and Wal-Mart.
"E-prescribing is safe and secure," says Michael Burger, director of clinical product management for Sage. "We appreciate that the government's obligation is to safeguard public health, but the vast inefficiencies in our healthcare system are overlooked in the current regulations. E-Prescribing is one of the many remedies that could counteract such inefficiencies. The cost savings are immense and the need in our healthcare system is great."
HospitalPortal.Net will build an employee intranet for Crittenden Regional Hospital, West Memphis, Arkansas. The 132-bed hospital with 650 full-time employees previously had no Intranet. "With HospitalPortal, we get a single-source secure and user-friendly process for the dissemination of policies and procedures, news and information, events scheduling and continuing education accessible to all departments," said Joseph Royal, Crittenden's director of management information systems, in a press release.
KLAS has released its 2007 Top 20 Year-End Report, which details vendor performance ratings for health IT software, professional services and medical equipment. Results are compiled from evaluations received from healthcare professionals during the past 13 months.
An Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruling that employers can cut benefits for retirees who turn 65 and become eligible for Medicare basically codifies current practice. Analysts say most employers already coordinate their retiree benefits with Medicare, and the policy helps businesses and retirees under the age of 65, who have the most difficulty finding health insurance in the open market.