At the end of a third day of Senate debate over healthcare legislation, Democrats and Republicans said that they had broken an impasse over the question of how and when to vote on the first amendments, the New York Times reports. But even as lawmakers announced an agreement to begin voting, Democrats accused Republicans of stalling debate and obstructing the legislation. Republicans said it was unrealistic to expect quick action on such a big bill, and they denied they were stalling, reports the Times.
Republican lawmakers pressed their case that new U.S. recommendations advising against routine mammograms for women in their 40s could be used to ration healthcare under reform legislation before Congress. The guidelines, issued Nov. 16 by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, scaled back recommendations for annual mammograms to screen for breast cancer in women in their 40s with an average risk for the disease. At a hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's subcommittee on health, members of the task force acknowledged that their description of the new guidelines might have been "poorly worded," leading people to think they were suggesting that screenings were unneeded for any patients in their 40s, the Washington Post reports.
The California Medical Association is opposing healthcare legislation being debated in the U.S. Senate, saying it would increase local healthcare costs and restrict access to care for elderly and low-income patients. The Association represents more than 35,000 physicians, making it the second-largest state medical group in the country after Texas. They group join a handful of other state medical associations that have opposed the bill in recent weeks, including those in Florida, Georgia, and Texas, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Democrats on a House panel offered a measure of sympathy for the federal task force that recommended less-frequent mammograms, while Republicans said the task force's message was wrong and could lead to unnecessary deaths, the Wall Street Journal reports. The remarks came at the first congressional hearing on the guidelines issued by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force on Nov. 16. The suggestions have provoked outrage from influential cancer groups, women's advocacy organizations, and radiologists.
Mercy Medical Center-Sioux City (IA) has agreed to pay $400,000 to settle allegations that it purposely overcharged federal healthcare programs for the care of heart patients. Mercy Medical Center-Sioux City denied wrongdoing, but it agreed to pay the money to settle the matter. A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office said this was the first time in Iowa history that a hospital had been prosecuted for overbilling the government under a program that pays extra for particularly expensive procedures. The "outlier" program is meant to encourage healthcare providers to take on unusually complicated cases, and prosecutors accused Mercy of using the arrangement to overcharge Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs for the care of heart patients.
A national push to avert delays in heart attack treatment has sharply increased the percentage of people who get prompt care, a study shows. In 2005, only about one-half of patients arriving at the hospital with a heart attack underwent angioplasty to unclog their arteries within the recommended time, which is 90 minutes. In 2008, following a national push by the college to get patients into treatment more quickly, 75% of patients received angioplasty within one and a half hours, according to a study published in this month's Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
Kindred Hospital Modesto (CA) will close its doors early in 2010 after efforts to sell the skilled-nursing facility were unsuccessful, its parent company announced. Kindred is eyeing a closure date at the end of January but first must have a closure plan approved by the state and make arrangements to transfer residents to appropriate healthcare facilities. The closure will result in job losses for 127 employees, including registered nurses, vocational nurses, nursing assistants and office personnel.
A man who died while waiting to see a doctor in a Philadelphia emergency room appeared to have expired within 11 minutes of signing in, a police official said. Police said a security videotape from the Aria Health-Frankford Campus hospital clearly showed Joaquin Rivera, 63, going into distress at 10:56 p.m. Rivera struggles to breathe, brings his hand to his chest, then falls still in his seat. It was only at 11:45 p.m., nearly 50 minutes after Rivera stopped moving, that hospital personnel noticed he appeared to be dead, a witness in the waiting room told police.
Millions of unemployed workers nationwide chose to keep their previous employer's health plan under COBRA. While the premiums are typically costly, a 65% federal subsidy, part of the stimulus plan, made the payments far more affordable starting last March. But by slashing health insurance costs for nine months and then taking the discount away, the government has focused America's debate about public support for healthcare on a narrow group of unemployed people, the Hartford Courant reports.
Florida has spent about $2 million defending a class-action lawsuit that claims the state is violating federal Medicaid requirements by providing inadequate medical and dental care to more than a million children. The case, scheduled for trial in mid December, claims 390,000 children did not get a medical checkup in 2007 and more than 750,000 received no dental care, the Associated Press reports.
