Louisiana healthcare providers are slated to get nearly $130 million in federal Social Services Block Grant financing, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Part of that money will go to shore up healthcare providers that suffered losses because of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in 2008, while some will be used to help hospitals and other institutions still suffering the effects of Hurricane Katrina.
The Clayton County (GA) Commission has voted unanimously to back a $40.2 million bond for Southern Regional Health System, allowing the county's only hospital to stay open. The vote means the 331-bed Riverdale hospital will not default on its loan, which is due to SunTrust January 7.
The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania has released results of a December survey showing that tight credit, ailing stocks, and financially strapped patients are hurting the state's hospitals. Forty-two percent reported a moderate to significant effect on their day-to-day financial operations, and three-quarters are forecasting a moderate to significant effect on their financial stability this year. The release came with a plea not to cut government funding for Medicaid and Medicare or special programs like burn and trauma centers and obstetrical care.
The first day of Florida's low-cost, bare-bones health insurance program started with a flurry of interest from uninsured Floridians, but also with confusion and glitches. The state Agency for Health Care Administration could not post phone numbers and Web sites of insurers selling the new policies, leaving consumers to hunt for the information or delay signing up. In a state where one in five adults are uninsured, the third-highest rate in the nation, hundreds of people called the state agency and the insurers about the low-cost, "Cover Florida" coverage.
New York Gov. David A. Paterson will propose that private employers be required to offer health insurance to workers' dependents who are ages 19 to 29. The proposal is part of what the administration hopes will be a step toward universal healthcare coverage in New York. Currently, employers are not required to offer health insurance to dependents who are older than 18 or, if they are in college, 22. The proposal expand coverage to some 800,000 people 19 to 29 years old who are uninsured.
Blue Shield has agreed to reissue medical coverage to nearly 700 Californians whose policies were canceled after they got sick and to make changes in the way it handles insurance bought by individuals, officials have announced. Blue Shield of California's Life & Health Insurance Co. also agreed to reimburse consumers whose coverage was canceled for medical expenses they paid out of pocket. In turn, the state dropped its case against Blue Shield and declined to pursue $12.6 million in proposed fines.
About 150 people gathered at St. Petersburg College recently to promote a statewide registry that would track every drug prescription in Florida. Thirty-six states have such registries. Fatal prescription drug overdoses in Florida jumped more than 20% in 2007, with more than 3,000 cases reported.
A $3.3 million expansion of Allina Medical Clinic in Cottage Grove, MN, will nearly double the number of patient rooms and add 11,000 square feet to the clinic. Existing portions of the 11-year-old clinic will undergo renovation, the clinic's first. Cottage Grove's population grew by 47% since 1990, and the expansion is due to the increase in patients, officials said.
Resolving a major question about the future of St. Bernard Parish's first post-Hurricane Katrina hospital, a nonprofit has formally pledged to donate a 10-acre tract across from the parish government complex. A letter to parish officials from Rita Gue, chairwoman of the Arlene and Joseph Meraux Charitable Foundation, said the group "is pleased to provide the land for the hospital with no cost to the residents of St. Bernard Parish." The formal pledge on the land comes less than a month after the Parish Council steered an additional $10 million in federal recovery money toward the hospital project.
In its legal battle to expand into Burholme Park, Philadelphia-based Fox Chase Cancer Center has hired the former president judge of Commonwealth Court to appeal its case to that court. After a Philadelphia judge ruled last month that Fox Chase cannot expand into the neighboring public park, the hospital dropped its former lawyers at Pepper Hamilton L.L.P., and retained James Gardner Colins at the Philadelphia firm Cozen O'Connor. Cozen filed a notice of appeal Dec. 31, stating Colins would handle the appeal before Commonwealth Court.
