As healthcare costs rise, running in-house health clinics appears to be a viable option for Texas cities and school districts. Several school districts in the Rio Grande Valley have opened clinics to trim the cost of employee health claims. The Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district has averaged more than $300,000 a year in savings since it opened its health clinic three years ago, and the city of Garland opened its own health clinic in 2003 with an average annual savings of about $500,000. Savings first appear when staff members and their families choose to visit an employee clinic with fixed costs, instead of their regular physician's office where billing rates are typically higher.
After years of negotiations with neighbors about its expansion plans, Philadelphia-based Fox Chase Cancer Center's board will consider alternate locations in the region for a new campus. The hospital's current facilities in Northeast Philadelphia are aging and crowded, and the hospital cannot assume that a legal dispute over the park expansion plan will end in its favor, said Fox Chase officials.
Since it's inception in 1986, the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council has churned out reams of reports on health maintenance organization performance, hospital finances, and infections contracted by hospitalized patients. Every few years, however, it relies on a new state law to keep it alive and the General Assembly faces a June 30 deadline to pass legislation that will allow the council to continue. Business advocates and labor unions say the reports give them valuable information that helps guide their healthcare plans, and lawmakers generally favor the council's continued existence.
Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell has vetoed a controversial "pooling" bill that would have allowed municipalities and small businesses to join the state's health insurance plan. The measure generated a battle between state employees' unions and their longtime opponent, the Connecticut Business and Industry Association. Union leaders said the pool would be a major step forward for healthcare, while CBIA said it was simply the first step toward an expensive, taxpayer-supported, single-payer system.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued a rebuke to the effort by an Illinois' doctor group to regulate retail clinics, saying some of a bill's provisions are anti-competitive and harmful to consumers. The bill would increase regulation of the facilities by requiring permits, curbing their advertising plans and requiring more physician involvement. The regulations are "ways that harm healthcare competition and consumers," according to the FTC.
Medical and government officials from northwest Indiana say the area's need for a top-level trauma center is being highlighted by the decision of a nearby hospital to close its center. Leaders of Merrillville-based The Methodist Hospitals and Porter hospital of Valparaiso have discussed starting up a Level 1 trauma center to provide care for seriously injured patients. State Rep. Charlie Brown said he believed leaders needed to take a close look at the issue after the decision by Olympia Fields, IL-based St. James Hospital and Health Centers to cease Level 1 trauma services.
Maryland leaders convened at the Prince George's Hospital Center to swear in a seven-member authority charged with finding an owner for the county's struggling hospital system. The group said the creation of the authority is the first step in a journey to provide the system long-term stability. The group will accept bids from companies interested in taking over the system, which includes Laurel Regional Hospital, Bowie Health Campus and two nursing homes. It is now owned by Prince George's County and managed by the nonprofit Dimensions Healthcare System.
As the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 1.7 million Americans acquire infections in hospitals every year, a New Jersey physicist and his son have introduced GloveGard, a medical exam glove sterilization device they invented to help combat hospital infections. The device is said to kill namely MRSA and C. diff, two of the most threatening and common bacteria.
Most U.S. hospitals don't do very well when it comes to promoting breast-feeding, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The average hospital scored 63 out of 100, according to the report. Hospitals were scored on supportive efforts, like offering breast-feeding tips and keeping the mother and the infant together. They also were evaluated on practices detrimental to breast-feeding.
Although it's not a country that is known for its overweight people, Japan has undertaken one of the most ambitious campaigns ever by a nation to slim down its citizenry. Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must now measure the waistlines of Japanese people between the ages of 40 and 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the entire population.
