The Loudoun (VA) Board of Supervisors has laid to rest seven years of debate over a proposed 164-bed hospital in Broadlands, voting 5 to 4 against a motion to reconsider its Feb. 3 rejection of the project. The vote came a day after Inova Health System had moved forward with plans to build an 80-bed hospital in the county. Inova officials announced that they had filed a letter of intent with Virginia officials to build the facility and will seek the required certificate of public need from the state health commissioner. The Broadlands hospital, proposed by HCA Virginia, had a certificate of public need from the state but could not win zoning approval from county supervisors.
The Commonwealth Fund has proposed creating a major new public health program and government-operated insurance exchange as part of a plan to expand coverage and rein in healthcare costs. The health policy research group unveiled a comprehensive plan for changing a U.S. healthcare system, and they hope the Obama administration and lawmakers consider the ideas as they move forward this year with plans for major changes in the healthcare system.
Doctors and patients are speaking out against Nevada Medicaid cuts proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons, urging lawmakers to reinstate funding with money from the federal stimulus plan. Several doctors spoke out against the cuts at a Senate-Assembly budget subcommittee, and said that without adequate reimbursement they could no longer afford to serve Medicaid patients. The state's Medicaid caseload is projected to grow by over 8% in each of the next two years.
Three of the nation's largest nursing unions have announced a merger to ramp up unionization efforts across the country. The three unions to merge are the United American Nurses, California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, and the Massachusetts Nurses Association. Their new, 150,000-member association will be called the United American Nurses-National Nurses Organizing Committee.
The New Jersey Hospital Association has released results of a new survey that revealed multiple signs of financial strain. Thirty-seven of the state's 74 hospitals responded to the survey. The hospitals said their total margins fell from 3.7% in 2007 to minus 4.5% in 2008, and 45% said they had laid off from six to 140 people in 2008. Twenty-one percent expect layoffs this year.
Chicago-based Norwegian American Hospital is eliminating 42 jobs, or nearly 6% of its workforce, amid the economic downturn, the hospital said. In addition, a cost-reduction plan will include "re-evaluating and renegotiating nearly every hospital vendor contract and fee-for-service agreement [and] reducing management compensation across the board," the hospital said.
A healthcare workers' union is urging Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to investigate stockbroker Robert Jaffe, a member of the hospital's board of overseers who helped direct investor funds to accused Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard L. Madoff. The union group, Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union, United Healthcare Workers East, sent a letter to the hospital's board of directors urging it to "investigate Jaffe's conduct and remove him from the board of overseers if appropriate." Beth Israel had no comment on the letter.
The Massachusetts eHealth Collaborative, a nonprofit that has played a leading role in implementing electronic health records, is creating a for-profit subsidiary as it expands its business helping doctors and hospitals adopt the new technology. The move comes as Massachusetts prepares to implement the electronic health systems beyond a three-community pilot project, which the collaborative ran over the past few years. The new entity is already working for commercial customers including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and its physician group.
As part of the economic-stimulus package signed into law, the federal government will provide a nine-month subsidy covering 65% of the Cobra premium for people who qualify. Eligible workers who originally opted not to take Cobra but who now want the subsidized version have 60 days after they receive notice from their employers to sign up, says Richard G. Schwartz, a benefits lawyer in New York.
Many young adults do not have healthcare coverage because they feel they are less likely to need it. They're not invincible, though, so it's important that they make safe decisions that could impact them later.
