It is often heard that healthcare IT lags behind financial world of IT by about 10 years or that healthcare IT should look to the financial sector for cues about doing IT right. But in his latest blog, John Halamka, MD, CIO of the CareGroup Health System, talks about why he doubts he'll be hearing either of those tidbits in 2008.
A Markham, Ontario, Canada-based anesthetist plans to offer more quality healthcare choices to international patients, namely Americans, at much lower prices than in the United States. Details on what procedures will be offered by the Canadian Healthcare International Corp. starting November 1 are not yet available. This initiative comes on the heels of a growing international medical tourism industry.
Chicago-based Michael Reese Medical Center, in the process of shutting down its healthcare operations, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a move the facility's executives say will allow its financial situation to stabilize as the operation winds down in the coming months. The closing of the facility has been in the works for months. It has faced tens of millions of dollars in losses and a series of challenges including ownership changes, competition from rival facilities, and a rising number of uninsured patients who cannot pay their bills.
A judge has issued a tentative ruling calling for the Los Angeles City Council to reconsider its decision allowing a San Fernando Valley hospital to expand. Superior Court Judge Thomas McKnew said the 15-member council used the wrong voting process when it approved a $180-million expansion at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center. The decision hands a victory to the union activists and neighborhood groups that had criticized the project for not addressing the effect of the project on traffic and parking.
Howard County, MD, is set to launch an effort to offer medical coverage to uninsured residents for as little as $50 a month and already has 1,200 county residents lined up to enroll. Officials said they developed the Healthy Howard initiative to give county residents access to a doctor, to reduce crowds in emergency rooms, and to lower healthcare costs. For one month, county residents can sign up for the program, which will provide as many as six visits a year to primary-care doctors, free in-patient hospital care, mental healthcare, discount prescriptions, and other services that would probably cost thousands of dollars if participants had to pay out of pocket. Those enrolled will also be assigned coaches to help them work out personal health plans.
Until recently, most Americans who traveled abroad for medical care were uninsured, or were seeking procedures not covered by insurance. Now, a handful of plans are beginning to cover treatment overseas for major surgical procedures. Most traditional employer health plans offer little incentive for workers to endure long flights overseas for treatment: The plans usually cover 100% of the cost of medical treatment once workers reach an out-of-pocket limit for co-insurance and co-payments. So to make travel abroad more attractive, plans that offer medical-tourism programs often throw in a bonus for employees if they agree to undergo elective surgeries abroad, or they offer to split the cost savings between the employer and worker. Travel and accommodation costs also are sometimes reimbursed.
Jack O. Bovender Jr., who returned to help lead hospital chain HCA Inc. amid a federal fraud investigation in 1997 and most recently oversaw a leveraged buyout that took HCA private, plans to retire as chief executive at the end of the year. Nashville-based HCA Inc. said that Richard M. Bracken, HCA's president and chief operating officer, will become CEO on Jan. 1 while retaining the role of president. The leadership change was announced as HCA and other hospital operators continue to face challenges such as lower inpatient admissions and an increase in patients without insurance coverage.
Emotional and physical fatigue have contributed to a profound nursing shortage in hospitals across country. Now, many hospitals are trying to improve nursing morale, and in turn patient care, by creating programs that reinforce healthy habits and eliminate bad ones.
Drugmaker Cephalon is paying $444 million to settle long-running state and federal probes of its sales and marketing practices. Cephalon will also become the first drugmaker to be required under a corporate integrity agreement with the Department of Health and Human Services to publicly disclose its payments to physicians. The five-year integrity agreement says that by early 2010, the company "shall post in a prominent position on its website an easily accessible and readily searchable listing of all physicians" acting as speakers, training as speakers, or serving as consultants for the company during 2009. During the first quarter of 2011, Cephalon will have to disclose the doctors who received any payments from the company in the prior calendar year.
Finding doctors who know their patients well and who deliver informed medical care with efficiency and empathy has become quite a challenge: Primary care doctors spend far more time talking to patients and helping them avert health crises or cope with ailments that are chronic and incurable than they spend performing tests and procedures. According to this article in the New York Times, the problem is that in this era of managed care and reimbursements dictated by Medicare and other insurers, doctors don't get much compensation for talking to patients. Instead, they get paid primarily for procedures, from blood tests to surgery, and for the number of patients they see, the article contends.
