Healthcare Policy

Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty has instituted a pay-for-performance program for all state-paid healthcare plans, including the state's medical assistance programs for the poor and the health plans for state workers. The program will set standards for quality of care in four of the most expensive areas: diabetes, hospital stays, preventive care and cardiac care. In each area, it will set targets for healthcare providers and pay bonuses to those who increase quality and performance. The …

Hospitals around Chicago are sweating from more than the 100-degree heat. The Cook County tax assessor is doing a detailed examination of property owned by more than 50 not-for-profit hospitals. The Chicago Tribune reports that some have received unnerving letters that they read as threatening their tax-exempt status. State's Attorney Lisa Madigan is after not-for-profits in general to make sure they fulfill their charity care obligations. A downstate hospital's property tax …

Philadelphia-area hospitals are watching with anxiety as a new facility, built with prefab techniques, rises in Bucks County. The Philadelphia Inquirer compares it to building with Lego blocks. Built by Diversified Specialty Institutes of Nashville, TN, DSI Bucks County is the first new hospital in the area in more than a decade which is overbedded already, the Inquirer says. The new hospital will focus on breast care and will have 24 beds, six operating rooms, a cancer …

The federal government has OK'ed Massachusetts's proposed universal health insurance plan by granting a Medicaid waiver for the program and agreeing to continue providing $385 million per year in Medicaid funding for the next two years. The agreement also includes an additional $225 million to expand Medicaid coverage, says this article in The Boston Globe. The program will offer a combination of subsidized and low-cost insurance plans, expanded Medicaid coverage and incentives …