The thing about writing columns that predict what will happen in the next 12 months is that, a year later, you have to go back and see how well—or how poorly, as the case may be—you did. +
A public insurance option would compete with private insurers as a way to provide a level playing field to protect Americans without health insurance. +
Diane Stover of Memorial Hospital and Health System in South Bend, IN, talks about how healthcare organizations can benefit from conducting "innovisits" with companies in other industries.
Blue Cross and Blue Shield will soon join Zagat dining guide to provide doctor rankings for its members. This is the latest in a push for more data and transparency in the nation's healthcare system. In the program, Zagat will collect and compile survey information on physicians from Blue Cross members based on four criteria: trust, communication, availability, and office environment.
Lafayette Home Nursing Company has aquired Northwest Healthcare Alliance, Inc. of Washington, which operates as Assured Home Health and Hospice. The deal, which is expected to close December 31, expands LHC into 17 states.
About half of the nursing homes in Texas nursing homes received below-average scores under a new federal system that rates the quality of more than 15,000 facilities nationwide. The ratings were based on state health inspection reports, three years of complaint investigations, staff performance, and resident care. Some believe, however, that the ratings system is well-intended but misleading.
The state of Texas will extend health coverage for three months to nearly 34,000 children in the Houston and Beaumont areas after learning that many applications had been lost in the wake of Hurricane Ike. Because they missed the enrollment deadlines, the children would have lost Medicaid coverage as of December 31.
Emory University stripped Charles B. Nemeroff of his department chairmanship and placed severe restrictions on the psychiatrist's extracurricular activities. Emory's announcement followed an internal investigation into $800,000 in payments made to Nemeroff by the global pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline between January 2000 and January 2006. Nemeroff received the payments for more than 250 speeches he made to other medical professionals. He has been a central figure in a federal investigation of whether drug company payments to doctors and academics skew research in favor of certain drugs.
More than 1,000 patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center had their personal information taken by a former employee in the hospital's billing department, according to hospital officials who said prosecutors allege that the man used the identities to steal from insurance companies. The hospital's chief financial officer warned affected patients in a letter sent last week that their information had been found during a search of the former employee's home.
UnitedHealth Group Inc. settled a Securities and Exchange Commission civil lawsuit over alleged stock-options backdating. The company's former General Counsel agreed to a $575,000 penalty in the case; he also will repay $1.4 million in gains and $347,211 in prejudgment interest. UnitedHealth, one of the largest U.S. health insurers, has not admitted or denied the allegations. The SEC didn't seek a penalty from UnitedHealth. The settlements require court approval.
In its second-annual report on the top 10 technology-related safety hazards at hospitals, the ECRI Institute has added five new hazards to this year's list. The revisions are based on the prevalence and severity of the reports the group has received over the past year, recalls and actions it has reviewed, and other published reports. New on the list: air embolisms from contrast media injectors, retained devices and unretrieved fragments, fiber optic light-source burns, anesthesia hazards from inadequate pre-use inspection, and misleading displays on medical devices.
