 | Healthcare |
| Hospitals |
| Physicians |
In a small box at a web site, there was a graph that showed that the ED visits in Canada and the USA are identical. This suggests that universal healthcare may be what the Canadian courts said "a free wait for healthcare." The study was done in June 2007.
In the Southeast companies have gotten together to attempt to reduce their medical outlays. Five large employers in the Charlotte area are going to pay physicians extra money if they follow cookbook medicine checklists for certain conditions. This is not new and is going on across the country. Most primary care physicians will do what they say in order to raise their income and some will do it because the checklists have got the right information.
For those who want government paid universal medicine, listen up. The sovereign state of Michigan like California is out of money. California just delayed the second payout on Medicaid to providers due to a budget impasse. Michigan has now postponed $54 million in due payments to hospitals to at least the end of September. These are payments that were due in April and July. If governments can not balance their own budgets without national health care how can they do it with it. Can the nations medical institutions and physicians go without payments due for an extra 5-6 months? Michigan universities are all raising their tuition because the state can not pay them what they owe them. The universities are not government controlled and can raise their rates to cover the shortfall. Medicine is regulated and can not.
Kaiser has released its profit figures. They have increased their income which was $877 million for the quarter but $356 million were one time savings. This still is huge over one year earlier when they had income of $198 million. Their revenue was up 10% to $9.4 Billion. There was no increase in members. Therefore, they charged more and gave less. Sounds like an HMO.
A report from the Kaiser Family Foundation showed the breakdown of healthcare spending in 2005. To nobody's surprise hospitals spent he most, 31%. Next was physician services at 21 % ( I do not know what is included in this broad category). Third was "Other Health spending at 18%. Next was "Other Personal care" at 13%. Prescription drugs came in at 10%. Nursing Home Care was at 6% and last was Home Health at 2.4%. Top
It's finally over. CMS has denied funding to the worst hospital in the country, King of Los Angeles. The hospital will now close to the betterment of the community. The idiots who caused the closing by their government interference now state the closure was racist. It wasn't racist it was political mismanagement. The activists want it open again within 15 months. Staffed by who? Run by who? The same incompetents that ran it before with the same political interference.
The LA Board of Stupes has authorized a grand total of $16.3 million to go to the hospitals and physicians near the shuttered King hospital. That money won't go very far and it shows how much the Board feels for the people of the District.
A surgical specialty hospital in northern Illinois, Northwest Suburban, has filed for bankruptcy. The total surgeries has dropped from 1300 to about 300 per year. The hospital blames the bankruptcy on increased competition and low payment from Blue Cross. Blue Cross is the largest creditor seeking money for overpayments. The hospital will be sold to SwedishAmerican of Rockford, Illinois.
In San Jose, California, a new physician owned surgery hospital has been approved and is going to break ground later this year. In its usual lip sync, the California Hospital Association is backing the other San Jose hospitals as being against competition. If the hospitals weren't arrogant and non-responsive in the first place, there would be no specialty hospitals needed. The new hospital will have 40 inpatient beds, 6 ICU beds, and an independent research foundation. The hospitals are impotent to do anything about the new approved hospital.
A study shows that Medicare patients do better in orthopedic specialty hospitals than in regular hospitals. The authors suspect but can not prove the reason may be that healthier patients go to specialty hospitals. The study only showed less complications and did not study patient satisfaction or cost. Top
The Florida Sun states that the physicians of the state are asking patients for extra fees. The fees are not for boutique practices but for regular practices hoping to stay afloat. The fees are usually voluntary and several hundred dollars a year. They may be illegal for Medicare or Medicaid patients. Top
DISCLAIMER: Although this
article is updated periodically, it reflects the author's point of view at the
time of publication. Nothing in this article constitutes legal advice. Readers
should consult with their own legal counsel before acting on any of the
information presented.