universal coverage news from FierceHealthcare

Sadly, there are often large disparities in between the health outcomes of different minority groups, including higher rates of death from some conditions. Now, with a new president in place,... Read more...

In recent days, President Obama has been decrying the use of pre-existing conditions by health insurers to exclude some patients from individual coverage. In doing so, he's become one of a growing... Read more...

With senators going ahead on health reform before President-elect Obama gets into office, discussions have already started about what is necessary. Witnesses have been testifying in particular about... Read more...

Recently, we ran an article which stirred up some serious discussion on the subject of how to pay for the care of undocumented, medically-indigent immigrants, and how to handle things when a provider... Read more...

Regardless of whatever other benefits it might offer, universal coverage isn't going to solve health system problems created by the primary care provider shortage, a new study has concluded. The... Read more...

By the year 2020, the nation will need 140,000 family physicians--a 40 percent increase over what was needed two years ago--according to the American Academy of Family Physician's 2006 Physician... Read more...

Though they haven't been implemented yet, the revised Stark rules which went into effect December 4, 2007 have come under fire from at least one powerful hospital group, which says they aren't fair.... Read more...

It's all well and good to advocate for universal healthcare coverage, but unless we trim costs universal coverage is not sustainable, suggests New York Times columnist David Leonhardt. If they really want to fix the U.S. health system, presidential candidates should encourage the industry to focus on which treatments really work, he says. Article

While there are plenty of exceptions to self-referral regulations known as "Stark II," the repercussions can be enormous for hospitals that wrongly assume that they're in the clear. So whenever hospitals do business with physicians, it's critical for them to lay plans carefully and get attorneys involved in transactions, says Rosland Fisher McLeod, J.D., vice president and general counsel with Novation. For example, if hospitals want to offer physicians a lease, and then decide to cancel the deal, they can't offer physicians another lease until the original term is up. "Planning at the front end is very necessary," says McLeod, who led a session at the VHA Inc's annual conference in Denver. "Involve your legal counsel early and often. This stuff is very tricky."

Unfortunately, she notes, hospital leaders aren't always aware of which areas are dangerous in Stark terms. For example, she notes, there is no Stark exception allowing hospitals to let doctors purchase supplies through their bulk purchasing contracts. Another area where hospitals aren't always careful enough is when they create joint ventures with physicians. In such deals, like ambulatory surgical center and imaging center JVs, hospital execs must make certain that physicians are taking meaningful financial risks, she says. "They must sign a loan guarantee, buy some equipment...they have to have some skin in the game," she notes. What's more, hospitals must be certain that physicians aren't given special financial status related to how often they refer or how much their referrals are worth.

To get more background on Stark II rules:
- read this law firm's summary (.pdf)

Related Article:
Stark files universal coverage measure. Report

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> Kindred Healthcare has opened a freestanding, 68-bed long-term acute care hospital in Cleveland. It plans to open another in San Antonio shortly. Article

> According to a new study, doctors in Minnesota would prefer a single-payer universal health system to one based on universal coverage. …

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