The White House has indicated that it could accept a nonprofit healthcare cooperative as an alternative to a new government insurance plan, but the co-op idea is so ill defined that no one knows exactly what it would look like or how effectively it would compete with commercial insurers, according to the New York Times. Under co-ops, the government would offer start-up money in loans and grants to help doctors, hospitals, businesses, and other groups form nonprofit cooperative networks to provide healthcare and coverage.
Although President Obama has made healthcare his top priority and says the cost of Medicare and Medicaid is "the biggest threat" to the nation's fiscal future. he has not named anyone to lead the agency that runs the two giant programs. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is the largest buyer of healthcare in the United States. If it had an administrator, that person would be working with Congress on legislation and could be preparing the agency for a new, expanded role, the New York Times notes.
Boston-based Caritas Christi Health Care is set to disclose that it is selling a laboratory business to Quest Diagnostics Inc. for an undisclosed price and will use the company's technology to help manage medical records at Caritas hospitals. The deal is part of a larger effort by Caritas to cut costs and boost efficiency at its six Eastern Massachusetts hospitals.
Longer days, lower pay, less prestige, and more administrative headaches have turned doctors away in droves from family medicine.
The number of U.S. medical school students going into primary care has dropped 51.8% since 1997, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. And if Congress passes health care legislation that extends insurance coverage to a significant part of the 47 million Americans who lack insurance, the need for more doctors is going to escalate.
Developers of a North Dallas medical complex have lined up the sales of two more tracts for new buildings. The Westmount Health Campus already has a new hospital, and other construction is planned. Westmount Realty Capital sold an almost 7-acre tract on the east side of North Central to Forest Park Realty Partners III, a group of physicians and investors. The same buyers also optioned 3.8 acres of adjoining land.
Despite the governor's pledge to better discipline errant health professionals in California there are signs that it will be difficult to enact sweeping changes as quickly or easily as the administration has suggested. At meetings in Sacramento, regulators and state attorneys generally spoke of the need for reform but could not agree on potential solutions presented to them. They also offered no concrete time frames for having a workable system in place.
Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago plans to add nearly 90 hospital beds to its main outpatient tower. Northwestern submitted its $73-million proposal to state regulators, and aims to ease a capacity crunch for intensive-care and medical/surgical beds. The project requires the okay of the Illinois Health Facilities Planning Board, which is scheduled to consider the application in January.
The White House shut down an email account set up to collect tips from Americans on "fishy" claims about President Barack Obama's healthcare plan. The move came as congressional Republicans and bloggers continued to raise questions about why Obama officials were collecting negative statements made by ordinary Americans about the president's healthcare plan and what the administration was planning to do with the information it gathered.
There are enough points of evidence, over the past 2-3 months, to suggest that growth may be returning to healthcare, says Sg2 Vice President Stephen Jenkins. But while that is good news for the healthcare industry, there are a whole series of cautionary notes to consider, Jenkins says.
The offices of several state attorneys general said they had fielded complaints about career counseling companies during this recession, according to an article in the New York Times. Many of the companies do little more than provide ordinary job search assistance, and while this can be a legitimate and useful service much of it can be obtained more cheaply, according to the Times.
