Leading senators from both parties said that they would make sweeping changes in Medicare to reward or penalize doctors, hospitals, and nursing homes according to the quality of care they provided. The proposals would also create strong financial incentives for doctors and hospitals to coordinate the care they now provide in a fragmented way.
The Democratically controlled Congress easily approved a $3.4 trillion spending plan, setting the stage for President Obama to pursue the first major overhaul of the nation's healthcare system. Lawmakers also agreed to use a procedural tool known as reconciliation to advance the president's proposal to expand health coverage for the uninsured—a move that ensures Republicans would not be able to filibuster the legislation.
The World Health Organization took the unprecedented step of warning that the world is probably on the verge of a pandemic as new cases of swine flu mounted. The first death was reported in the United States and the virus appeared to arrive just outside the nation's capital. The agency raised the alert level for the second time in three days, elevating it to one notch below a full-scale pandemic, after concluding that the virus was causing sustained outbreaks in the United States and Mexico. The heightened alert is intended to prompt every nation to activate an emergency response plan, to spur pharmaceutical companies to increase production of antiviral drugs and help speed development of a vaccine, and to prod bankers to help poor countries afford measures to fight the virus, officials said.
In the push to digitize America's hospitals, Midland Memorial Hospital in Texas faced a need for information technology to replace archaic paper records, but a shortage of funds to pay for it. But Midland Chief Executive Russell Meyers found an unexpected freebie of sorts: the software used to power the electronic medical-record system of the Veterans Health Administration. Created with several billion dollars in taxpayer funds over two decades and used in more than 1,400 VA facilities, the source code is in the public domain and software developers around the world can freely build features into it. Add the cost of hardware and the services of a company that has adapted the VA software for commercial use, and Midland paid less than $7 million for a full electronic medical-record system.
Louisiana State University would cede control over its New Orleans hospital operations to a new, independent board under a bill that sailed out of a House committee. The House Health and Welfare Committee approved House Bill 830 without objection, despite opposition by LSU System President John Lombardi. Lombardi contends the change could mean a step back for the university's efforts to develop a first-class teaching hospital to take the place of Charity Hospital.
Aetna Inc.'s first-quarter profit beat Wall Street's estimates, but higher than expected medical costs tied to the recession alarmed investors and drove the company's stock price down more than 10%. Net income at Hartford-based Aetna inched up 1% to $437.8 million, or 95 cents a share, from $431.6 million, or 85 cents a share, a year earlier.
Doctors from Spokane, WA, and Rwanda are working together to improve healthcare in that African nation. Teams of surgeons, nurses and other medical professionals from Spokane have traveled to the central African nation in the past year to treat patients and train people.
Now, two Rwandan doctors are working at Deaconess Medical Center to learn how U.S. hospitals function.
Health departments and hospitals are shifting into emergency mode as clusters of swine flu develop across the country, and some are activating pandemic plans for the first time. Many states have declared a public health emergency in anticipation of a pandemic. Some of these states have requested their share of the federal stockpile of flu medicine as at least 10 states have confirmed swine flu cases.
Nashville-based Southern Hills Medical Center has agreed to pay a former employee $70,000 in damages after denying him time off to make a pilgrimage to Mecca but admitted no wrongdoing when it settled the religious discrimination case. In late 2007, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed suit on behalf of Wali Telwar, a Muslim former Southern Hills medical technician who lives in Nashville.
The recession has drained hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of workers from the state and local health departments that are now the front line in the country's defense against a possible swine flu pandemic. Health officials in affected states said they had thus far been able to manage the testing and treatment of infected residents and mount public education campaigns. But many said they had been able to do so only by shifting workers from other public health priorities, and some questioned how their depleted departments might handle a pandemic.
