new york state

You think your budget is tight?  Try being a New York state-based non-profit hospital. The state's 218 non-profit facilities lost a collective $95.4 million in 2005, putting them at 49th in the country for operating margins, according to the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS). HANYS said that 56 percent of the state's non-profits are losing money, breaking even or running margins of less than 1 percent, a dismal situation given …

A recent report by the Centers for Health Workforce Studies finds that the number of minority doctors in New York state is still not in line with the state's proportion of minorities. "African Americans, Hispanic/Latinos and Native Americans make up 30 percent of the population but only 10 percent of the physician work force," notes The Business Review (Albany), while Asian Americans are over-represented in the physician work force. This is a problem because …

The hospital industry is blasting Oxford Health Plans--and owner UnitedHealth--over what it sees as unethical billing practices. In New York, one woman decided to use an out-of-network surgeon that practiced at an in-network hospital. She was prepared to pay the difference for the surgeon but was shocked when she received a bill for her entire stay, despite the fact that she used an in-network hospital. Oxford claims that it did nothing wrong and that its policies were clearly …

>The Continua Health Alliance will help encourage wireless adoption as well as remote monitoring technology, some observers argue. Article

> New York State takes the extreme step of banning UnitedHealth group from signing new customers to its managed care plan. Article

> A plan that would have led to grades …

A New York state commission will release data on its hospitals as part of an inquiry into the state's hospital industry. The ratings process is being closely watched by hospital executives across the industry who fear low scores could hurt business. Article | Web site

Officials in New York say they will go ahead with a 20-year, $2 billion contract that will see Lowell, Massachusetts-based M/A-Com set up a digital public safety network serving medical personnel, law enforcement and other responders in the event of an emerging public health threat or major terrorist incident, such as a biological attack. The New York State Office of Technology will manage the project.

- see this story from Government Computer News

Pataki administration officials in New York are defending themselves from charges that the health department has been lax in pursuing Medicaid fraud. An investigative report by The New York Times several months ago found widespread abuse throughout the state, leading to calls to reform the program. Executive Deputy Commissioner Dennis Whalen told a special session of the New York State assembly that the newspaper report exaggerated the extent of the problem and did not …

An audit by New York State has found mismanagement and inept accounting practices at Westchester Medical Center but exonerated the facility of fraud charges. The new report details the spectacular virtual collapse of a hospital which was $7 million in the black in 2000 but over the next four years managed to find ways to lose a staggering $200 million. The audit determined that accounting estimates at the hospital were off by a shocking degree, usually by millions of dollars every month. …

A New York Times investigation has found that Medicaid fraud in New York State may total in the billions. A front page story in Monday's issue of the paper details a series of scams targeting the $44.5 billion program, including one in which a dentist claimed to have seen 997 patients in a single business day. Although details are not yet official, the numbers involved appear to suggest that the fraud may be the largest uncovered in a government program.

The case is …

> A surprising survey of hospitals in Japan underscores the cultural differences between attitudes regarding end-of-life issues in Asia and the US. Story

> The Food and Drug Administration approved the controversial BiDil, the first race-based medicine to be marketed in the US. …