Several major healthcare groups are expected to pledge today to the White House that they will work to reduce cost increases by 1.5% in each year of the next decade—an amount totalling about $2 trillion.
The move by the groups—including the American Hospital Association, the American Medical Association, America's Health Insurance Plans, the Service Employees International Union, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the California Hospital Association, and the Greater New York Hospital Association—appears to signal that provider groups are willing to participate in healthcare reform efforts.
Opposition by many key provider groups during the first Clinton administration in the 1990s essentially had stalled any movement in overhauling the healthcare system.
The pledge, in the form of a signed letter that is to be released later today, is not aimed at slicing healthcare spending overall. Instead, it appears to examine curbing the current rate of growth.
The United States now spends more than $2 trillion annually on healthcare—or about 16% of gross domestic product. With healthcare costs currently projected to grow about 7% annually, a decrease of 1.5 percentage points could save an average family about $2,500 a year five years from now, compared with other costs at the higher growth rate, administration officials predicted this past weekend.
The health providers, in their letter, said the reductions would come through simplifying administrative costs, making hospitals more efficient, reducing hospitalizations, managing chronic illnesses more productively, and expanding healthcare information technology.
Also today, the Senate Finance Committee is expected to release its recommendations on expanding healthcare coverage, which include discussions of a public insurance plan. The panel held a three-hour roundtable on the topic May 5. On Tuesday, members of that committee will hold their third and final roundtable on how to pay for the healthcare plan.
Mayo Clinic has announced it has picked as its next leader a neurologist who currently leads the clinic's fundraising efforts.
John Noseworthy, MD will become Mayo's president and chief executive when Denis Cortese, MD, retires in November. Noseworthy joined Mayo in 1990 and was chair of the department of neurology from 1997 to 2006.
Baptist Health South Florida, a healthcare giant with almost $1.9 billion in annual revenue, is opening a medical center in Coral Springs and planning three more for Broward County. The Coral Springs center includes an urgent-care clinic and a center for outpatient diagnostic services, including magnetic resonance imaging, CT scans, and digital mammography.
Examining stroke patients via videoconferencing is as effective as a bedside exam and can increase patient access to stroke specialists, says a statement released by the American Heart Association. Stroke patients require rapid assessment in order to determine if they're eligible for time-sensitive treatments such as tissue plasminogen activator, which can save brain function and reduce stroke-related disability, the AHA explained in a news release. These patient evaluations often need to be done by stroke and brain imaging specialists, but there are only about four neurologists per 100,000 people in the United States.
Those who want to extend the time some Texas hospital patients may live before their life support is cut off are worried that their proposal is running into a wall at the Capitol. Legislation by Texas Rep. Bryan Hughes would require life-sustaining treatment to continue for patients whose condition is deemed futile by doctors until a transfer to another medical facility can be arranged, if their family requests it. Currently, hospitals can stop life support after 10 days in certain cases if the patient is terminally or irreversibly ill and cannot express treatment wishes.
In an attempt to get Johnson Memorial Corp. "out of the woods," officials are negotiating with Fairfield, CT-based Paradigm Physician Partners, which promises to upgrade the hospital with new technology and business operations. The Connecticut-based Johnson Memorial filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November. John Pierro, a partner at Paradigm, is to become the permanent chief executive officer of Johnson when the partnership goes into effect. The Johnson network, which cared for nearly 100,000 patients in 2008, includes the hospital, nursing homes and several other medical treatment facilities.
For more than 2 1/2 years, Farrah Fawcett's battle with cancer has sparked a flurry of headlines, but it has also stripped the actress of her ability to seek treatment while maintaining her privacy, she said. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Fawcett denounced the National Enquirer for publishing leaked details about her illness, including some that she said were false. And she criticized UCLA Medical Center for failing to protect her medical records from snooping employees.
Even before Congress debates a healthcare bill, President Obama is getting sucked into a fiercely polarized fight over a new government insurance program that patients could choose instead of private coverage. The battle over the "public option" has mobilized interest groups on both sides of the political spectrum with millions of dollars in their campaign war chests.
With health insurance costs and the number of uninsured people rising, Michigan House Democrats are to introduce proposals that aim to make health coverage more affordable and to expand government programs for lower-income children and adults. Republicans are to introduce their own proposals later in the week that center on expanding public insurance plans to cover more people. The bills come after the Legislature failed to reach an agreement last year after more than two years of hearings about how to change Michigan's health insurance market.
Backers of the push for electronic medical records such technology will cut costs and save lives. But a growing body of research illustrates the potential challenges such as getting doctors to use the safety-enhancing features the systems offer and the patchwork of privacy regulations in different states. A study on electronic medical record adoption by researchers at Harvard Medical School surveyed Massachusetts doctors in 2005 and 2007. Over that time, the study found, electronic medical record adoption jumped to 35% of practices, from 23%. But it also found that over the same time, there was little change in the use of many of the system features thought to increase the safety and efficiency of medicine.
