emergency care

> Despite mounting investments in in-home care, Ohio spends more on nursing home care than 41 other states. Article

> Doctors are taking FDA warnings on child use of antidepressants to heart. Prescriptions of these drugs have dropped dramatically during the past couple of years, according to a new study. …

According to this activist group, it's an open-and-shut case: illegal immigrants are substantially increasing the volume of uncompensated costs hospitals must bear each year. The vast majority of the costs come from immigrants' use of the emergency department, especially for births, according to the Washington, DC-based Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Emergency care costs for immigrants have hit $1.4 billion per year in California, $700 million in New York, and more …

Another one hops on the bandwagon. This week, it's New Jersey which has climbed on board with a universal health coverage model. The proposed legislation, which hasn't been filed yet, would require all state residents to carry health insurance, with state funding subsidizing those couldn't afford health plan premiums. Residents would be able to apply for the subsidized plan even as they were in the process of seeking emergency care. Uninsured legal and and illegal immigrants, meanwhile, …

In Texas, it's good to be a physician-owned specialty hospital--so good that the state legislature may once again discuss limiting physician self-referral to these hospitals. A recent report drafted by the state has concluded that such hospitals get markedly more insured patients and provide less emergency care (avoiding compulsory free care). At the same time, they get more referrals from physician owners, according to the state's "Analysis of Niche Hospitals in Texas and the Financial …

One way or the other, you're going to end up treating the uninsured. So why not cut your losses, and along the way, salvage your bottom line? That seems to be the thinking behind an emerging practice in which some forward-thinking hospitals are providing free preventative care to uninsured working poor patients who don't qualify for public medical funding. One proponent of this approach is the Seton Family of Hospitals, an Austin, TX-based Roman Catholic hospital network. Through its …

It looks like "coopetition" just lost another round. After months of wrangling for position that went nowhere, three Twin Cities hospital systems have dropped plans to merge their separate pediatrics programs into a single, high-profile pediatrics hospital. On the surface, the deal made sense. Each of the individual players--The University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, Allina and Children's Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota--was unhappy about the comparatively low volume of …

In Indiana, doctors and hospitals are protesting a plan to transfer the state's Medicaid patients to three private insurers. Providers are vehemently resisting the change because the insurers have proposed a 30 percent cut to physician reimbursement for Medicare patients. Doctors and hospitals say that the steep cuts will force physicians to limit the number of Medicaid patients they treat, leaving a high number of indigent patients to receive expensive emergency care. Insurance company …

Earlier this week, a 49-year-old woman from Illinois died of a heart attack after waiting two hours in Vista Medical Center's emergency room. Her tragic death points to serious problems in the nation's emergency departments, and some doctors are saying that it was only a matter of time until overcrowding in the ER resulted in a patient's death. "There is a crisis that has been here so …

> At Health Care Renewal, Maggie Mahar criticizes the theory that bringing market influences to bear on medical costs will solve this nation's healthcare problems. Blog

> Several individual policy holders have filed suit against some of California's health insurers, alleging that their policies were retroactively and improperly canceled. …

UnitedHealthcare can't seem to get along with anyone these days. The insurer has warned some patients that it might not be able to negotiate a contract with Tennessee-based Sumner Regional Medical Center before the September 30th deadline. And there's a twist: Sumner Regional employees have UnitedHealthcare coverage, which means if the contract isn't renegotiated, hospital employees will have to receive non-emergency care at another in-network facility. This is only the latest in a series …