Lawmakers eager to broaden healthcare coverage while holding down costs are examining the institutional market for medical supplies. Senators from committees like finance, judiciary, and aging are investigating the practices of companies that represent big networks of hospitals, nursing homes, and other institutions. These group purchasing organizations select "preferred" manufacturers and negotiate the prices of medical products, which are a closely held secret. They then use a variety of carrots and sticks to make sure their hospitals buy those brands at the contracted price, according to the New York Times.
A coalition that includes drug companies, doctors, and a big labor union that all favor an overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system opened a $12 million television advertising campaign directed at 12 states. The advertisements are intended to counter the sharp criticism of President Obama's overhaul efforts that has emerged at town-hall-style meetings. Change would have a positive effect, according to the coalition. The commercials are running in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Virginia.
Partners HealthCare, the largest healthcare system in Massachusetts, has reported an $18 million deficit through the first nine months of the 2009 fiscal year, but narrowed its loss in the third quarter. Operating income of $129 million for the nine months ended June 30 was offset by losses of $147 million, mainly from investments. If Partners were to post a loss for its full fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, it would be the first in the company's 15-year history.
Patients who do not take their medications as prescribed pay a price in poorer health, more frequent hospitalizations, and a higher risk of death. Collectively, they also incur up to $290 billion annually in increased medical costs, according to a Boston-based health policy group that urges making the issue part of the national debate on overhauling healthcare.
As Members of Congress returned to their home districts for the August recess, the politicking over healthcare reform found a new gear, writes Sg2 Chairman and CEO Michael Sachs. In about 12 weeks we will know more about where health reform is headed, Sachs says, but it seems increasingly unlikely that Congress will marshal the political support and budgetary math to pass a reform bill that dramatically expands coverage.
With growing numbers of economically strapped patients, some medical providers have turned to healthcare credit cards as a new tool to cope with rising unpaid medical debt. But while credit cards may help some people cope with rising out-of-pocket medical costs, they also are posing new and troubling hazards for sick and stressed consumers—accounting, for instance, for an estimated half of personal bankruptcies.
As a result of California budget cuts, the Healthy Families program will have to begin terminating coverage for more than 60,000 children on Oct. 1. Nearly 670,000 children could be dropped by June 2010. The Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board is scrambling to secure funding from other sources, including money set aside by voters for early childhood education, but so far it has come up short.
To healthcare reformers, Grand Junction, CO, is a place that provides high-quality healthcare at a fraction of the regular price. The local HMO offers prenatal care to all women in the county. Doctors evaluate themselves partly on the cost-effectiveness of treatments they prescribe. Nurses often check on patients home from the hospital to help prevent relapses. With President Obama set to hold a town hall there, many experts hope Grand Junction will offer lessons to the rest of the country.
Beverly, MA-based Northeast Health System, the parent of Beverly Hospital, said it is focusing its search for a new chief executive on Ohio hospital executive Ken Hanover, and is in the process of negotiating a contract with him. Hanover has been president and chief executive at Health Alliance in Cincinnati.
Jason Newsom, MD, railed against unhealthy food in his campaign to promote better eating in a town in Florida. Newsom is a 38-year-old former Army doctor who served in Iraq, and when he returned home to Panama City a few years ago to run the Bay County Health Department he started posting sardonic warnings on an electronic sign outside. When he parodied "America Runs on Dunkin'," the doughnut chain's slogan, with: "America Dies on Dunkin," he says he was forced to resign.
