The federal government's jobs report last month left many eager to find out if the next report would again show weak gains or even losses in hospital employment in spite of durable growth in the healthcare sector at large.
But anyone who keeps close tabs on healthcare employment woke up this morning—the first Friday of October—without the monthly fix of federal jobs data thanks to the government shutdown in Washington.
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Part of a four-year tentative labor agreement reached this week between the California Nurses Association and Dignity Health includes a new program designed to curtail and deal with workplace violence.
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The Union of American Physicians and Dentists and California state officials have tentatively agreed on a three-year labor contract for about 1,500 employees including physicians and other staff working for the Department of Human Resources, the Sacramento Bee reports.
The agreement includes an 8% raise for some physicians and surgeons, a 5% raise for some medical consultants and public health officers, and a 4% raise for all other unionized employees. The increases would depend on whether state revenue meets projections. If there is a shortfall, the pay hikes would be delayed until the 2015-2016 fiscal year.
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The New York State Nurses Association is battling an unlikely foe at the negotiating table.
The nurses union is in labor talks with its own 16-member professional staff, which includes nurse educators, organizers and PR workers. United Steelworkers represents those staffers, who say they are frustrated with a perceived delay in coming to an agreement. Issues include overtime pay and pay scale. A news release urged the NYSNA to “practice what they preach.” The current contract ends in March 2014, and talks started almost a year ago.
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The for-profit assisted-living industry came under the harsh spotlight of PBS' “Frontline” investigators Tuesday night as the news program took Seattle-based Emeritus Corp. to task for a number of deaths and injuries involving residents with dementia at Emeritus facilities across the country.
Emeritus, which was founded in 1983 and has 483 facilities around the country, is the one of the country's biggest assisted-living operators.
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Home-care workers are growing inpatient with the White House's delay in publishing a regulation that would bring them overtime pay and the federal minimum wage.
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Eye-care firms continue to be a hot target this year as pharmaceutical and medical-device firms see a growing market for ophthalmology procedures.
Abbott Laboratories, the Illinois-based medical-device giant, is shelling out $250 million for OptiMedica Corp., which makes technology for laser-assisted cataract surgery.
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Delays in key provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act last week last week are spawning congressional actions this week.
The Obama administration's surprise July 2 announcement that it will delay for one year the requirement that large employers provide qualifying insurance coverage for their workers or face tax penalties spurred told-you-sos from Republicans in Congress.
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Job cuts in healthcare are hardly rare these days, but St. Vincent Health's newly announced layoffs in Indiana will certainly grab some eyeballs.
St. Vincent, a Roman Catholic provider and part of St. Louis-based Ascension Health Alliance, announced it would cut 865 jobs, according to the Indianapolis Business Journal.
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