A majority of Wisconsin residents favor a state-run health insurance system, and even more like the idea of expanding existing programs or investing in health savings accounts, according to a poll.
About 4,500 patients at three Minnesota clinics must get new vaccinations after monitoring revealed their earlier shots had been improperly refrigerated. Similar problems have been uncovered at other clinics in the state and across the country, largely because of expanded state and federal audits of vaccine storage records.
A 61-page report from the state auditor calls for the California Legislature to give nonprofit hospitals more specific instructions on reporting costs for uncompensated care and evaluating community benefits. According to the auditor, uniform guidelines are needed in reporting the dollar valuations of community care.
At the beginning of 2007, the expectation was that the new Democratic-led Congress and President Bush would make some headway on healthcare for the uninsured and rising medical costs that are squeezing the middle class. Instead, the reached a stalemate. The failure to act underscores how hard the healthcare problem is to deal with.
Legislative leaders in California have announced that more taxes would be needed to fill a projected $14-billion budget gap next year, and the state Senate president said any healthcare overhaul will have to wait.
Officials of Children's Healthcare of Atlanta have filed a certificate of need with the state to construct a $43 million building downtown. The costs will be covered by private donations, and Children's Healthcare has already raised $34 million toward the project.
The Chicago Plan Commission has favored a plan from Children's Memorial Hospital's plan to build a 22-story hospital crowned with a heliport. Plans for the $1 billion hospital, which would replace Children's aging Lincoln Park location, still must clear the City Council's zoning panel as well as the full city council.
A state panel has approved a range of changes for next year for the rapidly growing subsidized health insurance program in Massachusetts. The changes will probably cut payments to doctors and hospitals, reduce choices for patients, and possibly increase how much patients have to pay.
Maryland's largest insurer of doctors will return to the state $84 million it has collected through a taxpayer-financed subsidy program to help pay malpractice premiums, according to state regulators. the three-year-old subsidy program is being curtailed because a spike in malpractice awards has flattened out, said Gov. Martin O'Malley.
Thousands of breast cancer patients could be spared chemotherapy or get gentler versions of it without harming their odds of beating the disease, according to new research.