The New York State Legislature passed a bill yesterday that will increase state taxes on a pack of cigarettes by $1.60.
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Want Cigarettes in NYC? A Pack Will Cost You More Than a Ten Spot
A program at the University of California San Diego known as PACE –- for Physician Assessment and Clinical Education — is being used by a growing number of hospitals and state medical boards to assess the competency of troubled doctors, according to an article in today’s WSJ special report on Innovations in Health Care .
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Is There a Competent Doctor in the House?
One of the most contentious front lines in the health-care cost wars is between hospitals and private insurers. That battle zone has gotten particularly hot in recent contract negotiations over reimbursement rates that hospitals are demanding from the insurers. “We’ve never seen the kind of increases we’re seeing right now” from hospitals, Aetna President Mark Bertolini says in a WSJ article this morning
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Aetna: ‘We’ve Never Seen’ Such Rate Increases From Hospitals
Fast-growing spending on imaging tests in Massachusetts gives a closeup view to the many-sided question of whether improved technology is really worth the extra cost. The facts, as laid out by the Boston Globe this morning: Spending on MRIs, mammograms, and other imaging tests for privately insured Massachusetts residents jumped 20%, or $214 million, between 2006 and 2008, according to consultants hired by the state
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In Massachusetts, the Pros and Cons of New Imaging Technology
Like plenty of other states, Tennessee is strapped for cash and looking for ways to save money. Cuts are likely for TennCare , the state’s Medicaid managed care program. But the state’s hospitals may ask to pay more taxes in order to stave off cuts to the program, the Tennessean reports
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Why Tennessee Hospitals May Ask to Pay Higher Taxes
Paying doctors for every test and procedure creates an incentive to do more tests and procedures . But finding an alternative payment system that works has proved tricky. In Massachusetts, where rising health costs are compounded by the state’s universal health-insurance policy, the push is on to find an alternative to the fee-for-service system to help rein in costs
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Will a Move Away from Fee-for-Service Control Health Costs?
Connecticut law requires hospitals to tell the state Department of Public Health when certain medical errors harm patients.
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When the Law Allows Hospital Errors to Remain Secret
New York state made waves earlier this year when the health commissioner said all health-care workers had to get vaccinated for both seasonal and H1N1 flu. Yesterday, the state suspended that rule — but not because of the court challenges and opposition it generated from the state nurses union . Instead, the governor said in a statement, there isn’t enough H1N1 vaccine to go around, so not all workers would be able to get vaccinated by the Nov
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New York Ends Flu Shot Mandate for Health Care Workers
About half of health care workers usually go without a flu shot . That increases the risk that they’ll get the flu, and pass the disease on to patients. Requiring those who come into regular contact with patients to get vaccinated would surely reduce the problem, but would making the shots mandatory for workers violate their rights
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Should Health-Care Workers Be Required to Get a Flu Shot?
Nonprofit hospitals are big businesses.
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How Much Charity Care Do Nonprofit Hospitals Have to Provide?
