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Judge lets HCA continue with vaccine mandate

By Joe Carlson
November 19, 2009
A federal judge has declined to prevent HCA from implementing a flu-vaccine policy in five hospitals in Northern California despite anecdotal evidence presented by a workers' union that the policy was exposing workers to negative public attention.
... FULL STORY

Healthcare makes up bulk of false claims tally

By Gregg Blesch
November 19, 2009
The U.S. Justice Department tallied $1.6 billion in False Claims Act settlements and judgments involving healthcare in fiscal 2009, accounting for two-thirds of the government's total haul of $2.4 billion last year under the fraud-fighting statute.
... FULL STORY

Former McKesson chairman convicted of fraud

By the Associated Press
November 19, 2009
The former chairman of McKesson Corp. and former CEO of HBO & Co., Charles McCall, has been convicted of securities fraud after a retrial of a $9 billion accounting scandal case dating back a decade.
... FULL STORY

FDA warns international Internet pharmacies

By Shawn Rhea
November 19, 2009
The Food and Drug Administration has issued 22 warning letters to operators of international Internet pharmacies for the sale of misbranded or unapproved drugs to U.S. consumers, according to a news release.
... FULL STORY

Aetna eliminates 625 jobs, consolidates offices

By Rebecca Vesely
November 19, 2009
Aetna is eliminating 625 jobs immediately and expects to lay off a similar number of workers in early 2010, the Hartford, Conn.-based insurer announced.
... FULL STORY

Pa. hospitals note pressures from ASCs

By Jean DerGurahian
November 19, 2009
Competition from ambulatory surgery centers is increasing the pressure on safety net hospitals and healthcare costs in Pennsylvania, according to the Hospital & Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.
... FULL STORY

Alliance for Health Reform sets Friday briefing

November 19, 2009
The Alliance for Health Reform plans to hold a briefing on Affordability and Health Reform: If We Mandate, Will They (And Can They) Pay? at 12:15 p.m. ET Friday, Nov. 20, in the Russell Senate Office Building, Washington. Participants include Sara Collins and Rachel Nuzum of the Commonwealth Fund;...
... FULL STORY

Why haven’t payment woes been fixed by now?

November 19, 2009
Medicare has been around since President Lyndon B. Johnson was in office. Why are the systems and processes not in place to prevent this magnitude of error/fraud for the benefit of the taxpayer?
... FULL STORY

Bill a ‘tremendous step forward,’ Reid says

By Matthew DoBias
November 19, 2009
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) raised the curtain on a 10-year $849 billion health overhaul package that melds components of two separate Senate bills that collectively have driven a wedge between Democratic and Republican lawmakers. Emerging from a Democrats-only briefing, Reid called...
... FULL STORY

Reform measure seen as source of hope

November 19, 2009
I am grateful for the hope that more Americans have healthcare coverage. It is my hope that there is a focus on preventive care
... FULL STORY

Poll finds support for curbs on malpractice lawsuits

By Associated Press
November 19, 2009
Most Americans want Congress to deal with malpractice lawsuits driving up the cost of medical care, says an Associated Press poll. Yet Democrats are reluctant to press forward on an issue that would upset a valuable political constituency—trial lawyers—even if President Barack Obama...
... FULL STORY

UConn Health Center faculty vote to unionize

By Hartford (Conn.) Courant
November 19, 2009
In a tight election, faculty members at the University of Connecticut Health Center have voted to form a union. The pro-union side won by a two-vote margin—223 to 221. Eighty-six percent of the 519 eligible faculty members voted in the two-day election.
... FULL STORY

Use reform to tackle problem of waste

November 18, 2009
While the $98 billion in government waste is outrageous, steps are being taken to address it, finally. The same budget office indicated that most of the waste was in Medicare/Medicaid and was the...
... FULL STORY

Consumers see hospital and doc-office prices rise

By Melanie Evans
November 18, 2009
Consumer prices for hospital services climbed 0.3% in October compared with the prior month's 0.7% growth, the seasonally adjusted Consumer Price Index released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows. Last month's more modest gain is comparable to the 0.4% bump in October 2008. For the 12-month...
... FULL STORY

Employers' benefit cost growth slows, survey finds

By Rebecca Vesely
November 18, 2009
Employers' health benefit costs rose by 5.5% this year, the lowest increase in a decade, according to an annual survey by Mercer, a consulting group. The average per-employee cost of health benefits reached $8,945 in 2009, after four years of increases of just over 6%. Benefit costs continued to...
... FULL STORY

GAO faults Defense Department contract moves

By Rebecca Vesely
November 18, 2009
The Government Accountability Office identified six flaws in how the Defense Department awarded a lucrative military health benefits contract to Aetna over Health Net, according to released GAO report.
... FULL STORY

HCA hires Sowell as chief development officer

By Vince Galloro
November 18, 2009
HCA, Nashville, said it has hired Joseph Sowell as chief development officer and senior vice president. Sowell, 53, is a senior partner at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, a Nashville law firm with connections to several of the investor-owned hospital companies based in the area.
... FULL STORY

Key Democrat sounds confident on doc-pay fix

By Jennifer Lubell
November 18, 2009
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) appears confident that the chamber will approve legislation to revise Medicare's physician payment formula this week.
... FULL STORY

Little impact seen from report card use: study

By Jean DerGurahian
November 18, 2009
Hospitals in Canada did not see significant improvements on their cardiac-care processes through the use of publicly reported data, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical...
... FULL STORY

Coleman leaves Trinity Regional; Tibbitts tapped

By Joe Carlson
November 18, 2009
Trinity Regional Health System, Rock Island, Ill., has appointed Tom Tibbitts interim CEO of the three-hospital system following the immediate departure of President and CEO Andrea Coleman.
... FULL STORY

Biden lobbies Democrats to back reform

By Matthew DoBias
November 18, 2009
Vice President Joe Biden spent most of the morning and early afternoon on Capitol Hill, pressing Democrats to support a sweeping health reform package expected to be officially unveiled Thursday.
... FULL STORY

Payment error rate doubles, White House says

By Gregg Blesch
November 18, 2009
Medicare and Medicaid improperly paid out $54.2 billion in fiscal 2009, with the rate of Medicare fee-for-service errors more than doubling over the previous year, White House's budget chief Peter Orszag said. Orszag, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a conference...
... FULL STORY

APIC conference set for Thursday

November 18, 2009
The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology plans to hold a conference on “Healthcare-Associated Infections: The Changing Legal...
... FULL STORY

Catholic bishops strengthen life-support guidelines

By Joe Carlson
November 18, 2009
By a 214-4 majority, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops voted to strengthen its requirement that Roman Catholic hospitals insert and maintain nutrition and hydration tubes for patients in persistent vegetative states.
... FULL STORY

Calif. health leaders urge reopening of King/Drew

By Rebecca Vesely
November 18, 2009
Powerful healthcare leaders in California are urging the University of California Regents to agree to a proposed partnership to reopen the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles.
... FULL STORY

Public deserves careful analysis of issues

November 18, 2009
This is serious and very difficult business. When it comes to the impact upon the citizens of our great nation, they deserve better than has been currently done by those of us who are or have been in the business.
... FULL STORY

Not just swine flu—new cold virus may lurk, too

By Reuters via Yahoo
November 18, 2009
Runny nose, fever, cough, even pneumonia—the symptoms sound like swine flu but children hospitalized at one U.S. hospital in fact had a rhinovirus, better known as a common cold virus, doctors say. Hundreds of children treated at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia had a rhinovirus, and...
... FULL STORY

Lawmaker quizzes medical schools on ghostwriting

By New York Times
November 18, 2009
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) wrote to 10 top medical schools to ask what they are doing about professors who put their names on ghostwritten articles in medical journals—and why that practice was any different from plagiarism by students.
... FULL STORY

Progressive Democrats press for public option

By Matthew DoBias
November 17, 2009
Progressive Democrats met with Senate leaders to discuss the size and scope of a public health plan even as a small group of party members continued to steadfastly oppose such a measure.
... FULL STORY

Wholesale hospital prices jump in October

By Melanie Evans
November 17, 2009
Wholesale prices for hospitals surged 1% in October, on par with sharp increases each October for the past seven years, including the 1.2% jump in 2008, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index. All figures are preliminary. In September, the hospital PPI rose 0.2%.
... FULL STORY

Surgical safety woes linger, VHA researchers say

By Jean DerGurahian
November 17, 2009
Incorrect surgical procedures continue to occur within the Veterans Health Administration, despite the use of interventions such as a “time out” to reduce safety events, according to researchers.
... FULL STORY

Smoking, obesity remain key challenges: report

By Rebecca Vesely
November 17, 2009
Smoking continues to be the greatest health challenge of the past two decades while obesity rates continue to rise dramatically, according to a new report.
... FULL STORY

Radiologists criticize new mammogram guidelines

By Shawn Rhea
November 17, 2009
The American College of Radiology has criticized a new set of breast-cancer screening recommendations from a federal advisory board that suggest women ages 40 to 49 with no family history or predisposition for breast cancer no longer undergo routine mammography.
... FULL STORY

Omega Healthcare to acquire 80 long-term-care sites

By Melanie Evans
November 17, 2009
Omega Healthcare Investors said it has reached a $565 million agreement with CapitalSource to acquire 80 long-term-care facilities. The cash, debt and stock transaction, which is expected to close in two parts, also includes an option through the end of 2011 to buy another 63 CapitalSource...
... FULL STORY

Groups push lawmakers on doc-payment fix

By Jennifer Lubell
November 17, 2009
Congress will lose credibility if it fails to swiftly approve legislation that will fix Medicare's troubled payment system for doctors, said Nancy Nielsen, immediate past president of the American Medical Association, during a teleconference.
... FULL STORY

Colo. official won't move against Exempla deal

By Joe Carlson
November 17, 2009
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers has declined to intervene in a transaction that will put the day-to-day management of two secular Denver-area hospitals under the guidance of Catholic ethical directives.
... FULL STORY

Few take part in disease-management programs

November 17, 2009
There seems to be a “disconnect” in the study findings based upon actual health-plan member enrollment in disease-management programs. On average, only 10% to 30% of plan members who are at risk and...
... FULL STORY

Most say tax rich to pay for health bill, poll finds

By Associated Press via Yahoo Finance
November 17, 2009
When it comes to paying for a healthcare overhaul, Americans see just one way to go: Tax the rich. FULL STORY
... FULL STORY

HELP Committee to consider nomination

November 17, 2009
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. ET Wednesday, Nov. 18, for negotiations on the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act and to consider the nomination of Pamela Hyde for administrator of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services...
... FULL STORY

Bill would allow payment delays to boost fraud fight

By Gregg Blesch
November 17, 2009
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced a bill that would allow HHS to delay Medicare payments in order to give the government more time to review suspect claims.
... FULL STORY
 
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