The Senate has overcome a key parliamentary hurdle to move a massive economic stimulus bill one step closer to becoming law and set the stage for potentially tumultuous negotiations with House leaders over the final shape of the legislation. On a 61 to 36 vote, the Senate cleared the path for a final vote on its $838 billion bill that would provide money for a wide variety of purposes.
There is a small but growing movement to get unbiased reports of the pros and cons of different tests and treatments into patients' hands before they fall back on, "Doc, just tell me what you'd choose." The trend goes a step beyond the brief patient education that doctors are required to provide. One state, Washington, has passed a law encouraging the trend. And it may get renewed attention in this era of healthcare reform because studies suggest that patients who get the full scoop frequently choose more conservative therapy than their doctors initially recommend.
Nevada Gov. Jim Gibbons' plan to eliminate the Consumer Health Assistance office met sharp resistance from lawmakers and those who use the agency's services. The Consumer Health Assistance program helps solve problems with health insurance, medical benefits, workers compensation, prescription drugs, and medical bills.
Program director Valerie Rosalin said her office handled more than 8,000 cases in 2008 and saved patients more than $30 million in out-of-pocket costs by resolving disputes.
The employment agency that placed a convicted rapist in a large East Los Angeles county health clinic said that the X-ray technologist's criminal background check came back clear and that he "did not answer truthfully" several questions on his application. Mediscan Staffing Services said it terminated Gariner Beasley, 48, soon after learning of his criminal history. Until recently, Beasley had been working for about a month at the Edward R. Roybal Comprehensive Health Center despite being fired last August by county officials from a similar position.
As the market for search-and-rescue technology expands, LoJack Corp., the maker of wireless devices that allow cops to find stolen cars, is announcing the launch of a radio-based product designed to locate people. Several companies already offer devices that use wristband radio transmitters to help police locate people quickly, but advocates for the elderly and disabled say there's a large and unmet need for more such services.
Scores of Palestinian patients being treated in Israeli hospitals are being sent home because the Palestinian Authority has stopped paying for their treatment. Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem says that for the past week, no payments have come in and Palestinians whose children it is treating have been instructed by Palestinian health officials to place them in facilities in the West Bank, Jordan, or Egypt.
Many doctors may lose their ability to prescribe 24 popular narcotics as part of a new effort to reduce the deaths and injuries that result from these medicines' inappropriate use. A new control program will result in further restrictions on the prescribing, dispensing and distribution of extended-release opioids. Hundreds of patients die and thousands are injured every year in the United States because they were inappropriately prescribed drugs like OxyContin or they took the medicines when they should not have or in ways that made the drugs dangerous.
A worst-case scenario budget proposal, ordered by the Louisiana Division of Administration, would force Louisiana State University to close or downsize several charity hospitals. LSU officials say the proposal was part of a budget-cutting exercise, and that it's too soon to know what the hospitals' true 2009-10 spending plan would include. A real budget proposal is due to the state Legislature by March 13.
A 10-acre tract of land that was donated by the Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation, a nonprofit group, will ultimately become home to a St. Bernard Parish, LA, hospital through nearly $60 million in state and federal grant and tax-credit funding. The new facility will be the parish's first post-Hurricane Katrina hospital.
Visitors to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh could face traffic challenges when the new 10-acre Lawrenceville, PA, campus opens in May, despite years of planning for traffic improvements in the area. However, the new campus will bring increased parking for visitors—an ongoing issue in the already crowded neighborhood that touts narrow streets and limited parking—through construction of a 1,400-space parking garage.
