San Diego-based Palomar Pomerado Health plans to open a new, high-tech hospital in 2011, but a virtual model of the hospital is already online. The $800 million, 1.2 million square-foot Palomar Medical Center West will have 600 beds, and will feature technology such as operating suites with robotics technology and patient rooms that could be quickly reconfigured to meet the needs of a patient's changing health status. The medical center's online equivalent, termed "Virtual Palomar West," has similar features, which anyone with Internet access can tour via the virtual world of Second Life.
Arnold Kimn, MD, is quitting his medical practice to blog full-time about Apple because he found it was more profitable than practicing medicine. In 2000 while he was a fourth-year medical student, Kim launched the site MacRumors, a site devoted to news and rumors about Apple. Traffic grew over the years, and around 2003-2004, during the time he was starting his nephrology fellowship, ad revenue from the site started growing. Eventually, Kim says he was making more from MacRumors than he was from practicing nephrology and decided to quit medicine.
The CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans held a public meeting in Columbus, OH, this week with a group of uninsured citizens, kicking off the health insurance trade group's nationwide push for healthcare reform. AHIP officials say the drive precedes similar initiatives that will undoubtedly be part of the upcoming presidential election.
The five major New Orleans-area hospitals lost a combined $386.8 million between 2005 and 2007, and still face major financial hurdles despite lower losses projected in 2008, according to a congressional report released by the Government Accountability Office. Some hospital executives said they hope the report will persuade Congress to approve a stalled $350 million package intended to help hospitals in Louisiana and Mississippi deal with post-Katrina cash-flow problems. The five New Orleans hospitals would combine to receive $135 million under the package.
The board for Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta has announced that Michael Young, 52, will be the hospital's new CEO beginning Sept. 1. For three years, Young has been CEO of a similar but smaller urban hospital. At the same meeting, the board voted to remove current CEO Pam Stephenson, who will leave when Young takes over. Stephenson will receive a $325,000 separation deal, and her departure ends an embarrassing chapter during which Stephenson was accused of trying to profit from her tenure as the hospital's chief and her quick removal.
Although residential and commercial construction lending has dried to a trickle in Birmingham, AL, one segment of the credit market has remained vibrant: loans to the city's thriving firms that buy and sell healthcare real estate. Banks and other investors in the industry don't mind backing huge, big money healthcare ventures because doctors don't have much choice: the ones who want the top practices and the highest incomes need to rent space in the best hospitals available. As a result, it translates to pricing power for the landlord.
Tevi Troy, PhD, deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has encouraged North Texas insurers and employers to join a national network designed to make healthcare pricing and quality information more readily available to consumers. Troy came to Dallas to encourage the formation of a Chartered Value Exchange, a local collaboration among employers, patients and the health industry. Fourteen communities across the U.S. have joined a network of the exchanges, part of the Bush administration's effort to create a value-driven healthcare system.
Beginning in 2009, doctors can earn additional money from Medicare if they use electronic prescribing systems, U.S. health officials have announced. The bonus program will continue for four years, and is designed to streamline the prescription process and cut down on errors. In 2009 and 2010, Medicare will give doctors an additional 2% bonus on top of their fee for e-prescribing. In 2011 and 2012, the bonus will drop to 1%, and in 2013, the bonus will drop again to 0.5%, officials said.
General Motors retirees facing the loss of their health coverage should shop around aggressively to save money on Medicare coverage, say Ford retirees who went through the same thing in 2007. They say it's actually possible to save money, despite losing a generous, company-backed health plan and having to pay to supplement Medicare coverage. A big part of the reason is a payment the auto companies are giving retirees in place of their coverage. John Pottow, an associate professor specializing in bankruptcy law at the University of Michigan Law School, said many other retirees could face the same choices in the coming years.
Doctors at Cleveland's MetroHealth Medical Center contend that few patients who could benefit from implantable defibrillators are getting the devices because their family doctors might not know when to recommend them. Studies have shown that as many as 80% of patients satisfying current guidelines for having an ICD implanted are not getting them, said Kara Quan, MD, director of cardiac electrophysiology at MetroHealth and lead author on the study.
Quan sent out surveys to primary-care physicians in nine Northeast Ohio counties, asking specific questions about when to refer a patient for an ICD. She found that only one-quarter to one-third of family-practice physicians who responded were aware of the guidelines for referring their patients to have an ICD implanted.
