About 1 in 5 newly licensed nurses quits within a year, according to one national study, and that turnover rate is a major contributor to the nation's growing shortage of nurses. But there are expanding efforts to give new nursing grads better support. Many hospitals are trying to create safety nets with residency training programs, for example.
The House and Senate have reached agreement on an economic stimulus package with a price tag less than the amount approved in either chamber. At $789.5 billion, the wide-ranging measure includes hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks and new spending, and there are several health provisions included, according to this analysis from Sg2.
When President Obama and his allies pulled together the $787-billion bill that he is to sign, they talked about helping those rapidly swelling the ranks of America's more than 46 million uninsured. But in the scramble to pass a bill, lawmakers made changes that left out millions of middle-class Americans who have lost their jobs and are struggling to fill a prescription or pay for a visit to the doctor. That reflected a frenzied process in which sometimes arbitrary decisions were made to speed agreements and satisfy an array of political interest groups working to influence the massive bill, according to this article in the Los Angeles Times.
North Texas' not-for-profit hospital systems defended their level of charity care and their million-dollar executive compensation packages following the release of a government report questioning the benefit of tax-exempt hospitals. The two-year study by the Internal Revenue Service underscores a longstanding debate among health policy economists on whether not-for-profit hospitals are worthy of their tax-exempt status.
Millions of Americans who have lost their jobs in recent months have learned that just when incomes plummet, health insurance costs soar. That will change, at least temporarily, for millions of Americans with the stimulus package expected to be signed today by President Obama. The package includes $25 billion to subsidize 65% of COBRA payments owed by laid-off workers.
Medicaid recipients and healthcare advocates are livid at changes Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell's Rell has proposed in the state's budget, which include implementing premiums and co-payments for many HUSKY recipients and other cuts in coverage and services for state health insurance programs. They say Rell's plan unfairly burdens some of Connecticut's poorest residents, while asking little of the wealthy.
Labor unions and business groups have teamed up in a multimillion-dollar national lobbying campaign to pressure President Barack Obama and Congress for big changes in the nation's healthcare system, but the alliance is at odds as they get down to the specifics. After spending two years and more than $20 million to promote the idea, collaborators in the Divided We Fail coalition are divided over key elements of how to fix healthcare.
Officials with Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids, IA, say they are responding to tough economic times with a hiring freeze.
Hospital officials also say a salary freeze has been implemented for managers, directors, and senior management. Mercy CEO Tim Charles said in a statement that Mercy's employees are a critical resource and the hospital continues to deliver quality healthcare while adjusting to "economic realities."
The ubiquitous Zagat guides are known for an assortment of mostly leisure-related topics, but now the editors are asking people covered by one of the country's largest commercial insurers to post reviews of their doctors and rate them in categories like trust and communication. As in other Zagat guides, the responses are summarized and presented as scores that, in this case, are edited by the insurance company WellPoint. They can be viewed only by WellPoint customers, and the reviews are being introduced online to millions of WellPoint's Blue Cross plan members across the country.
Medicine and health are among the most popular topics for Web surfers, but an Internet entrepreneur says the current offerings are inadequate. James Currier has developed Medpedia, a free online medical encyclopedia that addresses what he views as the sector?s shortcomings. However, unlike Wookieepedia, Lostpedia and most social encyclopedias, only trained professionals will be able to write and edit pages on the Medpedia Web site, and all contributors will have individual author pages detailing their qualifications and backgrounds.
