Rebuilding and Cleaning Up the VA- New Secretary In Action, Hands On and Restoring Faith–60 Minutes..

<p>This was a good interview and already the Secretary has already visited over 40 facilities.  Maybe this is going to be good as certainly sounds like it as Robert McDonald  seems to have a clear path on what he needs to do and makes no bones about it.<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="213" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/--osGzndQ86U/VGBFz1DwkuI/AAAAAAABLwM/sDWC6jwIsLA/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="181" />  After everything that has gone on, I think his personal visits are great and important to let the people at the VA know there’s help on the way and as he states there’s a lot of good people there working to help Vets.  We all remember the whistle blower doctors in Phoenix and one is interviewed in this article.  In healthcare, I said the VA is just the tip of the iceberg as we need to look at patient care all over and yes it may not be as desperate as the VA but patient safety should be front stage now.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/05/va-crisis-just-tip-of-iceberg-as-us.html"><strong>VA Crisis Just The Tip of the Iceberg As US Needs a Full On Healthcare Culture Change Everywhere To Get Back In Touch With the Real World of Patients…</strong></a></h5> <p>Robert McDonald served in the military himself and thus he has that connection from earlier in life.  Patients have had to make long trips to get care and that was also the case in Phoenix too.  One VA patient handed McDonald a note and said she had to travel from Alabama to Boston to get decent care.  There are about 28,000 new people to hired and and there are others who will have to go he said.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/06/top-doctor-for-miami-va-healthcare.html"><strong>Top Doctor For Miami VA Healthcare System Lost Medical License in New York, Had Issues With Florida Board of Medicine, But On the Internet He Still Works and Takes New Patients in New York With Plenty of Insurers…</strong></a></h5> <p>McDonald is personally recruiting doctors himself for the VA and working to bring more on board and is giving raises to existing doctors.  In addition there’s 2500 mental health doctors to be hired for the VA and you can’t help but think how short they are on help when you hear such big numbers.  The patients getting care though in various facilities were very happy with their care, it’s just a matter of getting more Vets cared for.  Again when you hear the numbers of people to be hired, maybe McDonald is going to be able to push forward where others have failed, I hope so.  BD  </p> <p><embed src="http://www.cbsnews.com/common/video/cbsnews_video.swf" scale="noscale" salign="lt" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" background="#000000" width="425" height="279" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" FlashVars="pType=embed&si=254&pid=n_YnbQq0dt8S&url=http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/robert-mcdonald-cleaning-up-the-va" /></embed></p> <p> <hr />He'll need that sense of humor because McDonald is battling a behemoth cobbled together over decades. The VA is the second largest agency in the entire federal government behind only the department of defense. </p> <p>Secretary McDonald: We have no hope of taking care of veterans if we don't take care of each other.</p> <p>He has 340,000 employees who handle services ranging from home mortgages, to college loans, to heart transplants. </p> <p>Already Gibson has suspended bonuses for all VA executives. And he fired the director of an Alabama hospital. Tomorrow, McDonald will unveil the reorganization part of it designed so that veterans won't have to go to war to get their benefits.</p> <p>Secretary McDonald: Right now they face nine different organization structures across the country so they don't know where to go and if they do find somebody to go to that person may be an expert in benefits but not an expert in heath care. And we want to create a customer service representative that that person can go to. Secondly they face multiple websites that require multiple user names and multiple passwords and that's not acceptable. We've got to get to one website, one entry point, and then fan people out from there.</p> <p>Something he's already done is given doctors a raise. VA physicians were making less than most private doctors. It was hard to fill the open jobs and that led to those intolerable wait lists.</p> <p>Scott Pelley: What do you owe these veterans? Not the VA. But Bob McDonald, what do you owe these veterans?</p> <p>Secretary McDonald: Well, this is very personal because I served with a lot of these guys. And we were in very dangerous situations. And anytime you jump out of an airplane in a parachute, you're putting your life in danger. And as a jumpmaster, you're checking that person's equipment. And their life is reliant on yours. That's the kind of relationships you create. Those are the relationships that drive me to do this.</p> <p><a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-mcdonald-cleaning-up-the-veterans-affairs-hospitals/">http://www.cbsnews.com/news/robert-mcdonald-cleaning-up-the-veterans-affairs-hospitals/</a></p>

Rebuilding and Cleaning Up the VA- New Secretary In Action, Hands On and Restoring Faith–60 Minutes..

This was a good interview and already the Secretary has already visited over 40 facilities.  Maybe this is going to be good as certainly sou...

Read more »

House Bill Introduced Would Shorten Meaningful Use to a 90 Period Instead of a Full Year in 2015–A Model In Desperate Need Of Repair or Revisions…

<p>Let’s hope this get some action as the momentum after a successful Meaningful Use Stage One is beginning to fall off.  Some have told me they have just about given up.  Technology is to blame for some of this and frankly the ONC is overwhelmed with complexities due to some of that along with other things happening in the industry.  90 days is a much more reasonable amount of time as hospitals and doctors are very busy today with a lot on their plates.</p> <p>One hospital in Arkansas received an audit and is asked to return $900,000 based on the fact that they did<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="255" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-7rWhKhLPKhs/VB5vK13Q69I/AAAAAAABLYo/twq2ESGs8Ic/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="375" /> not do a risk assessment for their Meaningful Use Stage one incentives.  There could be more of these.  They were one of the very early adapters and are planning to write an appeal.  </p> <p>In addition there was the hardship extension which is throwing a bit of confusion out there with again the versions of meaningful use and software used.   It was confusing and I think some didn’t think they needed it when in fact they may have.  In just the simple summaries I write here it’s an effort to keep up on all the rules and regulations.  Hospitals can use the 2011 Edition certified EHR technology or a combination of 2011 and 2014 Edition certified EHR technology for the 2014 reporting period.  Doctors can attest under the 2013 reporting year and use the clinical quality measures from 2013 and will not get a penalty for not moving to meaningful sue Stage 2 during 2014, ok so did you get all that? </p> <p>Doctors using older medical record systems have until October 1st to report.   For those that miss a 1% reduction in Medicare payments will be assessed.  I have heard a couple of doctors tell me, it’s easier that way to take the 1% hit but for hospitals, that could add up to big money.  Less than 4% are certified for meaningful use two so far and doctors are at 1.3 percent, so sounds like there’s a few handing in the towel here and taking the hit on the payments.  Hospitals on the other hand are working to get this done by the end of the month to start collecting data. </p> <p>This just grew to be way too complex after Stage One and again it’s another distraction, with big money attached that takes away from caring for patients.  Stage One was a big success and the rules were pretty clear.  Will there be a stage three, time will tell but I think everyone is tired of Stage Two and wants to move forward and get it out of the way.  This is not how things started with the entire program but as it progressed, a real big mess with CMS and technology entering in here just blew the models out of the sockets and they are not working too well right now.   It’s a mess to even sort out at the ONC I would think as there’s a lot to working with models that have variables that change very frequently and as we see here, they can fail very quickly as well.   BD  </p> <p> <hr />Doctors and hospitals hoping the US Department of Health and Human Services will amend its 2015 reporting requirements for Electronic Health Records may get help in the form of legislation.</p> <p>Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) this week introduced HR 5481, “The Flexibility in Health IT Reporting Act of 2014.” The bill would reverse HHS’s decision to keep a full-year reporting period for its EHR incentive in 2015, replacing it with a 90-day reporting period. Providers have asked for asked for a shorter reporting period because they say the vast majority of doctors and hospitals aren’t prepared to meet Stage 2 Meaningful Use standards by their deadlines.</p> <p>“The Meaningful Use Program has many important provisions that seek to usher our healthcare providers into the digital age,” Ellmers said, in a press release. “But instead of working with doctors and hospitals, HHS is imposing rigid mandates that will cause unbearable financial burdens on the men and women who provide care to millions of Americans.”</p> <p>The bill has attracted 3 co-sponsors, including one Democrat, Rep. Jim Matheson of Utah. Many of the organizations joined the letter to Burwell have also come out in support of Ellmers’ bill. </p> <p><a href="http://www.hcplive.com/physicians-money-digest/practice-management/House-Bill-Would-Shorten-EHR-Reporting-Period">http://www.hcplive.com/physicians-money-digest/practice-management/House-Bill-Would-Shorten-EHR-Reporting-Period</a></p>

House Bill Introduced Would Shorten Meaningful Use to a 90 Period Instead of a Full Year in 2015–A Model In Desperate Need Of Repair or Revisions…

Let’s hope this get some action as the momentum after a successful Meaningful Use Stage One is beginning to fall off.  Some have told me the...

Read more »

Prime Healthcare Seals the Deal With Purchasing Another “Desperate Hospital” in Michigan

<p>Prime Healthcare is located in California and has made business of purchasing hospitals in financial woes and of course the alternative of having the hospital close is not a good one either.  The latest is Garden City Hospital in Michigan.  <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="143" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-AUBJsizYDrc/U7gifeYE9LI/AAAAAAABKwk/2WY3EQibKro/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="257" />$55 million in bond debt will be assumed by Prime that will protect jobs and pensions of the hospital employees.   Garden City has been looking for a sale for quite a while now.  We do have a big case of “hospital inequality” that nobody wants to really talk about and the link below has addition information on that topic. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/prime-healthcare-continues-to-purchase.html">Prime Healthcare Continues To Purchase “Desperate Hospitals” As Bids Become Available for Those That Are Cash Strapped - “Hospital Inequality” A Topic That Nobody Wants To Discuss</a></h5> <p>Current employees will have to apply to work at Prime which states they will offer employment to them, and of course that’s a win-win on both sides and the current “charity care provisions” are said to remain unchanged or equal to current policies.  Also Prime has agreed to not sell the hospital for a minimum of 5 years.  Prime now owns 27 hospitals across the country.  When Prime initially started they had some policies in California of not signing contracts with insurers but due to current economic times that has changed as well.  I remember when they purchased Huntington Beach hospital and how just the outside parking lot observations changed.  Before the purchase it was busy, you could not find a parking spot and afterwards you could roll bowling balls through the lot and even when I drive by today, it’s a little busier but not the once “busy” hospital that it was and some of the prior services the hospital provided are no longer available.  BD </p> <hr />Garden City Hospital has a new family with the announcement of Prime Healthcare Services this morning that it has completed the acquisition of the 323-bed facility. <p>Under the terms of the agreement, Prime Healthcare will invest at least $35 million in the hospital’s infrastructure and capital improvements beyond routine replacements and additions. It will also continue to provide charity care at the existing level or better, as well as maintain a local governing board.</p> <p>“We welcome Garden City Hospital into the Prime Healthcare family and intend to help continue its critical role in providing a healthcare safety net in Garden City and the surrounding communities,” said Dr. Prem Reddy, chairman, president and CEO of Prime Healthcare Services. “Prime Healthcare’s motto is ‘Saving Hospitals, Saving Jobs and Saving Lives,’ and we are confident the hospital will emerge stronger from this transition.”</p> <p><a href="http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20140703/NEWS08/307030074/Prime-Healthcare-seals-deal-sale-Garden-City-Hospital">http://www.hometownlife.com/article/20140703/NEWS08/307030074/Prime-Healthcare-seals-deal-sale-Garden-City-Hospital</a></p>

Prime Healthcare Seals the Deal With Purchasing Another “Desperate Hospital” in Michigan

Prime Healthcare is located in California and has made business of purchasing hospitals in financial woes and of course the alternative of h...

Read more »

Tucson University Medical Center Racks Up Over $28 Million in Debt Due to Medical Records Implementation

<p>It was something they had to do and of course the cost was there.  Most of the $28 million of debt is attributed to installing an Epic Medical Records system.  They began in 2012 and have received a little over a million for meeting their meaningful use incentives.  The one million is kind of over shadowed by the over all expense you could say.  <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="145" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-yK_QuOndd_c/U407RnleDKI/AAAAAAABKec/X3Te9pCJ0G4/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="236" /></p> <p>There are hopes to bring the debt down and folks sound optimistic but it’s a big one to crawl back from.  The facility has also had a rise with uninsured patients as well.  Something in the Health IT area that doesn’t get discussed too often is “hospital inequality” but it’s there.  </p> <p><strong><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/hospital-inequality-yet-one-more.html">“Hospital Inequality” - Yet One More Growing Issue With Healthcare In the US..</a></strong></p> <p>In rural areas of he US, many have closed and it’s still happening and we just hope there’s enough left to serve us, and thus so hospital ratings have pretty much died out there as far as consumer information is concerned.  It’s more about who’s left and where can they do in network, etc. </p> <p>So all those studies you read the last couple of years with technology saving money, well you can forget it as it’s not the case.  We had oodles of them out there, some even predicting national savings in the trillions with technology saving money and truth is that technology costs money so efficiencies created are eaten up quickly by the next Health IT or Medtech devices.  Here’s a couple recent posts about hospitals in California.  BD</p> <li><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/layoffs-coming-to-kern-hospital-in.html"> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/layoffs-coming-to-kern-hospital-in.html">Layoffs Coming to Kern hospital in Bakersfield - Return of Desperate Hospitals</a></h5> </a></li> <li><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/palm-drive-hospital-in-santa-rosa-shuts.html"> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/palm-drive-hospital-in-santa-rosa-shuts.html">Palm Drive hospital In Santa Rosa Shuts Down, No Money</a></h5> </a></li> <p> <hr />Southern Arizona’s largest health network is $28.5 million in the red so far this fiscal year, and officials say a costly electronic medical records system is largely to blame.</p> <p>The operating loss is unprecedented for the four-year-old University of Arizona Health Network, which includes two local hospitals.</p> <p>The electronic records system, from Wisconsin-based Epic Systems, has cost an estimated $115 million, including $32 million in unbudgeted costs for the first eight months of the fiscal year, which ends June 30, financial documents show. The extra costs are due primarily to a delay in getting the system live and funding additional training and support, officials said. It was supposed to be up and running by Sept. 1, but wasn’t operational until Nov. 1.</p> <p>“This is the biggest operational change this organization has ever undertaken,” said <strong>Dan Critchley,</strong> who started working with the UA Health Network as a consultant last July and has been chief information officer since Feb. 1.</p> <p>The network also lost federal dollars from a program that helped bridge the funding gap created by Medicaid rate cuts and a rise in uninsured patients. The Safety Net Care Pool, which also included Maricopa Integrated Health System and Phoenix Children’s, pumped $33 million into the UA hospitals for the first six months of the fiscal year. But that infusion ended Dec. 31 to coincide with greater health insurance availability through the Affordable Care Act.</p> <p>The UA Health Network, which began its Epic implementation in 2012, receives a little over $1 million per year in incentive payments, Critchley said.</p> <p>Adoption of electronic records is voluntary, but hospitals that don’t make the switch by October face Medicare payment cuts of about 1 percent, and increasing reductions each year.</p> <p><a href="http://azstarnet.com/news/science/health-med-fit/tucson-area-s-largest-health-network-racks-up-nearly-million/article_44d05d04-0acf-5fbc-8561-68d4bef3b577.html">http://azstarnet.com/news/science/health-med-fit/tucson-area-s-largest-health-network-racks-up-nearly-million/article_44d05d04-0acf-5fbc-8561-68d4bef3b577.html</a></p>

Tucson University Medical Center Racks Up Over $28 Million in Debt Due to Medical Records Implementation

It was something they had to do and of course the cost was there.  Most of the $28 million of debt is attributed to installing an Epic Medic...

Read more »

Layoffs Coming to Kern Hospital in Bakersfield - Return of Desperate Hospitals

<p>Here’s another hospital in financial straits and hates having to lay people off as this is their income to support families.  I know sometimes people forget that side of it when layoffs occur, the real<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="149" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-FZ1Xd8ncIYY/U2HSTblK27I/AAAAAAABKGQ/FiT-HH0P9kQ/image%25255B2%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="187" /> impact it has on families.  They sound like a good candidate for ICD10 risk pools so they don’t anyone else back.  Again I hear all the companies and profitable hospitals complaining but if it’s an all in, don’t you think efforts would go out to pool revenue and brings the others into the fold if they are having financial issues?  </p> <p><strong><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/icd10-enough-already-set-up-some-risk.html">ICD10 Enough Already, Set Up Some Risk Pools To Help The Poor Hospitals That May Not Have Enough Money To Come On Board When the Next New Date Approaches.. </a></strong></p> <p>The hospital is looking at a $30 Million dollar deficit.  Things have improved a little in the last month but time will tell.  BD  </p> <p><iframe height="315" src="http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/health/Layoffs-planned-at-Kern-Medical-Center-257252901.html?embed" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" seamless="seamless"></iframe></p> <p><a href="http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/Layoffs-planned-at-Kern-Medical-Center-257252901.html?tab=video&c=y" title="http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/Layoffs-planned-at-Kern-Medical-Center-257252901.html?tab=video&c=y">http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/Layoffs-planned-at-Kern-Medical-Center-257252901.html?tab=video&c=y</a></p>

Layoffs Coming to Kern Hospital in Bakersfield - Return of Desperate Hospitals

Here’s another hospital in financial straits and hates having to lay people off as this is their income to support families.  I know sometim...

Read more »

UPMC Medical Center Workers Protesting Low Wages While Investigation of Employee Data Breach Continues With Fake Tax Returns and Bank Accounts Drained..Double Whammy

<p>If you have been sleeping under a rock UPMC makes more money than any other <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="155" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-Vdbe1hcZdqs/U1S-b0dCmEI/AAAAAAABJ_0/CnirhpB_3uI/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="242" />hospital in the US, about a billion a year in excess revenue, which is how profit is described for non profits.  The former mayor filed a lawsuit to take away their non profit status and this mayor said he will continue with the suit.  In the mean time we have employees staging a protest wanting to unionize over low poverty wages.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/09/legal-battle-with-city-of-pittsburgh.html">Legal Battle With City of Pittsburgh and UPMC Medical Center Heating Up Again–Non Profit Hospital Pays No Property Taxes & Gets $200 Million Dollar Tax Break With $1 Billion in Excess Profits</a></h5> <p>Now for the data breach, about 27,000 employees are last said to be potentially affected. 788 employees have already reported some form of tax fraud and several have had bank accounts wiped clean.  This is terrible.  I keep talking about <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/hospital-inequality-yet-one-more.html">“hospital inequality”</a> just wrote another post about “desperate hospitals” looking to <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/prime-healthcare-continues-to-purchase.html">Prime Healthcare</a> to buy them to keep the doors open.  </p> <p><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0" height="270" id="flashObj" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="flashVars" value="videoId=3291465151001&playerID=1104993919001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAABAWGN-5E~,qpDkffrm8g8QeQ5uBtHNC8CDmSACiNOe&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" /><param name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com" /><param name="seamlesstabbing" value="false" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="swLiveConnect" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=3291465151001&playerID=1104993919001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAABAWGN-5E~,qpDkffrm8g8QeQ5uBtHNC8CDmSACiNOe&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="480" height="270" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object></p> <p>Most employees average around $12.63 an hour the article said and sure when a billion in excess revenue is made every year, sure this becomes an issue.  The employees even went on a week’s fast to protest the low wages.  Among their complaint are the fact that UPMC closed several facilities in low income areas only to open new ones in high income communities.  UPMC is Pittsburgh’s largest employer.  </p> <p>On top of all of this there’s the UPMC-Highmark Health/network, Insurance battle where UPMC is denying care to those insured by the largest insurer in the area.  UPMC considers Highmark a competitor to their own in house insurance plan.   Highmark a not for profit insurer bought West Penn Allegheny Health and now operates with everything under one roof, like Kaiser Permanente does.  BD </p> <hr />Following two days of protests outside of UPMC's Downtown headquarters, Mayor Bill Peduto will sit down with UPMC CEO Jeffrey Romoff today to discuss many of the issues around living wages and unionization that upwards of a thousand protesters brought to the sidewalks of Grant Street. <p>But the meeting -- which was not set in response to the protests -- will have other topics on the agenda, including whether the medical conglomerate will give anything to the city i<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="163" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-WtjqBtsXhOU/U1S-cgNgEFI/AAAAAAABJ_8/N0uxGJXdjbk/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="246" />n the form of payments in lieu of taxes. As a purely public charity, UPMC is largely tax-exempt. Mr. Peduto said he planned to continue a lawsuit started by his predecessor, Luke Ravenstahl, to strip it of its public charity status and said Tuesday that it could be used "as an opportunity for discussion" as he continues negotiations with UPMC.</p> <p>And he also plans to insert himself in the icy stalemate between UPMC and Highmark, which could leave Highmark subscribers locked out of UPMC's facilities next year.</p> <p>At Tuesday's news conference, Mr. Peduto largely backed the protesters' sentiment and also supports their right to unionize.</p> <p>"No employee of UPMC should have to live in poverty," he said. "Their economy dictates the way this state operates. They have the ability to transform neighborhoods."</p> <p><a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/03/04/Police-plan-to-keep-Grant-Street-open-as-UPMC-protests-continue-today/stories/201403040143#ixzz2zV12RTH2">http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/03/04/Police-plan-to-keep-Grant-Street-open-as-UPMC-protests-continue-today/stories/201403040143#ixzz2zV12RTH2</a></p>

UPMC Medical Center Workers Protesting Low Wages While Investigation of Employee Data Breach Continues With Fake Tax Returns and Bank Accounts Drained..Double Whammy

If you have been sleeping under a rock UPMC makes more money than any other hospital in the US, about a billion a year in excess revenue, wh...

Read more »

Prime Healthcare Continues To Purchase “Desperate Hospitals” As Bids Become Available for Those That Are Cash Strapped - “Hospital Inequality” A Topic That Nobody Wants To Discuss

<p>When it gets down to the bottom of the barrel, Prime Healthcare that was once considered the “dreaded last option” is now becoming a welcome offer in some states as they don’t have any or many other options. P<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="97" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-5ZR7vbYK8bs/U1RD2pEGdiI/AAAAAAABJ_M/VgUMn5-uFik/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="282" />rime Healthcare is located in Ontario, California and made big news a few years ago buying several California hospitals.  I watched the one local hospital to me here turn from a very busy medical center to one where you can roll bowling balls in the parking lot.  The reason for this was the fact that is that Prime comes in and looks at what makes money and what doesn’t.  What makes money, Emergency Rooms so those become Cadillacs.  Other departments get reduced or go away.  Here’s a few archive links for a quick review of the past in California as they are always in the news in form or another.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/06/prime-healthcare-to-acquire-three.html"><strong>Prime Healthcare to acquire three hospitals from Tenet Healthcare - California</strong></a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/05/prime-healthcare-settles-lawsuit-for-12.html"><strong>Prime Healthcare Settles Lawsuit for $1.2 Million – Balance Due Billing in California</strong></a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/11/prime-healthcare-buys-alvarado-hospital.html"><strong>Prime Healthcare Buys Alvarado Hospital In San Diego–One More Cadillac ER Room On the Way</strong></a></h5> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/03/prime-healthcare-buys-roxborough-acute.html"><strong>Prime Healthcare Buys Roxborough Acute Care Hospital in Philadelphia</strong></a></h5> <p>There was also this big privacy violation case but the seem to have 9 lives plus and plow through whatever comes their way as again the alternative is not something most want in closing up shop.  Sometimes in their bidding processes they are the only hospital operator that bids on some of the “desperate hospitals” and Prime is for profit and does bit on acquiring non profit hospitals.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/05/prime-healthcare-cited-for-violating.html">Prime Healthcare Cited for Violating Patient Privacy</a></h5> <p>Just recently Prime put $40 million into a non profit medical school project to develop a school in Colton, California.  Dr. Reddy grew up in rural India and thus there’s probably a lot of his motivation.  They operate 25 hospitals now in six states.   Recently I posted about “hospital inequality” and really nobody wants to write much about it but with so many rural hospitals closing, it’s one of those issues in the “real world” that uncomfortable to talk about and folks tend to run over to the “virtual world” for some news over there.  <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html">I call it “The Grays”</a> where folks at times too can’t tell the difference between virtual and real world values.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/hospital-inequality-yet-one-more.html">“Hospital Inequality” - Yet One More Growing Issue With Healthcare In the US..</a></h5> <p><strong>Ignoring inequality with hospitals can’t be more visible that right at CMS too thinking a big 5 star hospital rating system carries a big load of importance.</strong>  It’s not hard to figure out today that those with the most money will end up floating to the top.  At one time when financials were not so dire with so many hospitals it might have some value but little today and they are still stuck on thinking we need this data? </p> <p><strong>I see that a lot out there as just because data becomes available it’s like the 10th brigade to have to run over and do something with it as a priority and you get told “this is big news” because the news tells you “it is big news”.</strong>  We just went through all of that with the MD Medicare Claim data and sure it was a media event, but did little or nothing for consumers even though the news said it was going to release your soul if you will:)  It makes you wonder about about how bad <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html">“The Grays”</a> are when you see stuff like such that seem to leave common sense outside the door?  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/cms-plans-to-begin-five-star-hospital.html">CMS Plans To Begin Five Star Hospital Rating System - Add A Column For “Hospital Mortality Projections” Or Stop the Ratings All Together As Lack of Money Today Is More of a Determining Factor With US Hospital Inequality That Keeps Growing.. </a></h5> <p>You see this and just kind of sit back and scratch your head as if I see this why can’t others?  Maybe I’m<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="408" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-EotLtc1Ziw4/U1RD3R6hyZI/AAAAAAABJ_U/bAOekBDbnC8/image%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="214" /> just way too logical and spend too much time in the “real world”:)  I learned that a long time ago not to get too caught up in virtual values as it happened to me a few times years ago but I got wise with age I guess and having been a former developer I see both sides as best I can and I’m not looking for more click bait as the poor papers are doing too with trying to increase their revenue streams with ad exposure, so add that element in there too as it is the real world too.</p> <p>Back on topic here I read where <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/prime-healthcare-services-installs-da-vinci-surgical-system-at-several-hospitals-254436411.html">Prime is putting the surgical DaVinci robot</a> in 5 of it’s facilities too so it’s not all bare bones but again the focus on the ER is where dollars are as the company has made it a policy of not signing contracts with insurance companies but I think that may have changed a little in some areas with United,  Blue Cross and a few other contracts here in California.  </p> <p>In Michigan the state and county officials are making a case for Prime to buy Garden City Hospital.  The reason, to keep the door open.  Prime is committed to $35 million in capital to make improvements.  In Rhode Island with the Landmark Medical Center which Prime bought they are wondering about the provisions of the law and if the hospital will get a big tax bill.  In New Jersey St. Michaels hospital accepted a bid from Prime Healthcare to purchase the facility but will not take the debt from the hospital so taxpayers may be on the hook there.  It looks like it could be either take the offer or close down.  Prime has made the commitment to keep the hospital running for 5 years and then who knows what, it could be sold again, but at this point it is a 5 year life line.  Other bidders were higher but their intent was to buy it and close the hospital.</p> <p>So again sometimes the choices are not the best but when faced with either 5 years or close up, five years starts looking pretty good.  Again many small rural hospital in the US have closed due to lack of money, Georgia is one state that has been hit quite hard there.   For those where Prime didn’t show up, many have closed.  BD</p>

Prime Healthcare Continues To Purchase “Desperate Hospitals” As Bids Become Available for Those That Are Cash Strapped - “Hospital Inequality” A Topic That Nobody Wants To Discuss

When it gets down to the bottom of the barrel, Prime Healthcare that was once considered the “dreaded last option” is now becoming a welcome...

Read more »

Stan Brock of Remote Area Medical Addresses US Congress On Behalf Of the American People Who Have No Access to Healthcare Due to a Damaged and Broken System..

<p>Now this is news while everyone was busy fiddling around with the CMS MD claim data base.  <strong>This is much more important than that because we are talking the real world here, not the virtual<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="216" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-8PWkX0X9Hn4/U0YGKy5FP4I/AAAAAAABJ2A/xEfGXDXb2oY/image%25255B9%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="268" /> world of Medicare Claims from US doctors</strong> and you won’t find any of that here as <a href="http://www.ramusa.org/#!Stan-Brock-A-Voice-for-the-forgotten/cphd/429B9777-133B-40F1-8E98-77D70CC9A5C2">Remote Area Medical</a> is supported by donations only.  I have taken his speech from the RAM website so you can read it below.  RAM just finished a clinic in Las Vegas over the weekend<strong>.  We all suffer at some point in time from <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/virtual-worlds-real-world-we-have.html">“The Grays”</a> in being confused on virtual values and the real world value where they do and maybe should not intersect at times.  People not getting healthcare is very real, no virtual here.  All the crazy valuations for virtual companies and the hype move this along as well.</strong></p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/remote-area-medical-continues-its.html">Remote Area Medical Continues Its Mission With Providing Free Healthcare Clinic in Las Vegas This Weekend </a></h5> <p>I made a recent post too that death panels have not gone away, they are just algorithms now that stop everything when they don’t work together.  In North Carolina, 10,000 went 90 days without food stamps because the IT infrastructure, aka the algorithms were not working.  There’s one of the examples of the reformatted death panels, can’t see it, touch or talk to it as it runs on a server.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/death-panels-have-not-vanished-just-re.html">Death Panels Have Not Vanished, Just “Re-invented” As Powerful Algorithms That Run On Servers 24/7 Making Life Impacting Decisions About All of Us - Flawed Data Driven Attacks of the Killer Algorithms Persist </a></h5> <p>Nobody wants to talk about inequality at hospitals either as many just keep closing, both rural and in metropolitan areas.  Instead we get this insane <a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/04/cms-plans-to-begin-five-star-hospital.html">CMS 5 star rating system news</a>.  Things changed in a couple years and the ones with money will easily float to the top of the list, so value is kind of gone away in the rating business, we just want to know which ones are going to be left when we need care.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2014/03/hospital-inequality-yet-one-more.html">“Hospital Inequality” - Yet One More Growing Issue...</a></h5> <p>That right there is also yet more sign of the growing problem of inequality as those folks over there sound like they are completely out of touch.  Below you can read the address that Stan Brock made to Congress today.  Here’ a recent report from the Daily Show.  BD  </p> <div style="width: 420px; background-color: #000000"> <div style="padding-bottom: 4px; padding-top: 4px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px"><iframe height="288" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/embed/mgid:arc:video:thedailyshow.com:06ee4792-9301-4817-b45d-25d8088fffa3" frameborder="0" width="412"></iframe> <p style="margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; padding-bottom: 4px; text-align: left; padding-top: 4px; padding-left: 4px; margin-top: 4px; padding-right: 4px; background-color: #ffffff"><b><a href="http://thedailyshow.cc.com/">The Daily Show</a></b> <br />Get More: <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/">Daily Show Full Episodes</a>,<a href="http://www.comedycentral.com/indecision">Indecision Political Humor</a>,<a href="http://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow">The Daily Show on Facebook</a></p> </div> </div> <p> </p> <hr /> <p><strong><u>Stan Brock: A Voice for the Forgotten</u></strong></p> <p>April 9, 2014</p> <p>Stan Brock addresses congress on behalf of the American people who have no access to healthcare due to a damaged system: Stan Brock's Speech in full to HELP Subcommittee Hearing - Addressing <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="228" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-TO8ZNz58ICk/U0YGLT2rOOI/AAAAAAABJ2I/Tb6svARVVpU/image%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom-width: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border-top-width: 0px" title="image" width="238" />Primary Care Access and Workforce Challenges: Voices from the Field:</p> <p><strong>"Welcome to America – number 37 in the World Health Organization’s country rankings!</strong> I am a voice for more than half a million patients that REMOTE AREA MEDICAL®, (RAM®), has treated free of charge in 723 mobile medical clinics during the last 28 years. I know what it is like to be poor and without help. I am one voice of the millions of people who are not a part of our healthcare system. They have been left behind and forgotten. I speak for them today. </p> <p>I came from a place where there was no doctor, living with the Wapishana Indians in the upper Amazon. Their only recourse, when faced with catastrophic injury or sickness was a tribal witch doctor. But at least they had that. Some of the sick that we see here in the US have nowhere to turn. That is why I created RAM®. When I suffered a serious injury, one of the Indians said, “The nearest doctor is 26 days on foot from here.” I felt then what so many in our nation feel today, when they need a doctor and cannot get care. For millions of Americans, they might as well be 26 days on foot from the nearest doctor. In fact, one of our patients recently walked 15 miles because he was desperate for medical attention. </p> <p><strong>Health care in America is a privilege of the well-to-do and the well-insured; that leaves about 50 million people flat out of luck.</strong> These families live in fear of injury and sickness with no insurance or not enough of it.The predicament of these millions of marginalized Americans raises questions of morality, injustice and education. Poor education begets poor health. Poverty feeds on poor nutrition which creates obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer. The vicious cycle lies in wait for each child enslaved in poverty as they pass from beneath the security of state and federal programs into the barren wastes of adulthood. </p> <p>Many, nursing mouthfuls of decayed and abscessed teeth or suffering from fading vision, will inevitably join the long lines of desperate patients at a RAM® free clinic. I have looked into the distraught faces of Americans imprisoned by poverty, from child to grandparents, all generations lining up by the hundreds in places as diverse as Los Angeles, or a fairground in the mountains of southwest Virginia. I have seen our elderly in makeshift wheelchairs, people clutching precious numbered scraps of paper, their RAM® free clinic ticket to relief from unnecessary agonizing pain and sickness. They cannot afford healthcare. This leads some of our American families, with their children, to sleep in tents and cars, often for over 24 hours, waiting for a RAM® event to open its door. </p> <p><strong>Blindfolded, you can stick a pin on a map of America and wherever it lands, you will find hundreds, i<img align="right" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-cvO9aGnl_kM/UK1prJi1l_I/AAAAAAABAJ4/M5IQZmtFfas/image%25255B10%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="float: right; display: inline" />f not thousands of sick hurting people in need of care that they cannot obtain.Our people are living in sickness and pain and in need of basic medical attention.</strong> </p> <p>At RAM® clinics, dental care is the greatest demand with vision services a close second. 85 million Americans do not have dental insurance and half of those can’t afford to pay for a dentist without it. What are they to do? Hospital emergency rooms don’t do dentistry and they don’t make glasses.<strong> In most cases, Medicaid does not cover dentistry or vision for adults, and finding a Medicaid practitioner to provide treatment can be a real challenge.</strong> </p> <p><strong>RAM® is not a solution to the American healthcare crisis.</strong> We need to be in places like Haiti, not Tennessee and California. RAM® bridges the gap for those suffering needlessly in our system. A RAM® event is logistically strained at 1,200 patients a day and we are forced to turn away hundreds and sometimes thousands of sick people.Our healthcare system has failed our people because they either do not have access or they cannot afford it. </p> <p>As a result of the great need of those who are sick or injured, we have reached out to legislators for help. In 1995, RAM® asked the State of Tennessee to change the law to allow out of state licensed practitioners to provide free care to underserved patients in Tennessee. This highly successful program attracts 60 percent or more of the medical volunteers at RAM® events from out of state. A total of 12 states have now adopted the Tennessee model, but this process has taken 20 years. Doctors are still calling me to say that it is easier to volunteer their services in places like Guatemala than it is here in the United States! </p> <p>(Holding up 2 Pictures) Is this 1936 picture of a depression era mother in California any more revealing than this 2012 picture of a thousand Americans holding up their hands appealing for health care before daybreak at a RAM® free medical event in Bristol, Tennessee? Where have we gone wrong, in the last 76 years that separates these iconic images?" </p> <hr /> <p>Here’s the trailer from the documentary about Remote Area Medical.  BD</p> <p><iframe style="height: 257px; width: 492px" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/kIUlgqGkf3U" frameborder="0" width="560" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p> <p><a href="http://www.ramusa.org/#!Stan-Brock-A-Voice-for-the-forgotten/cphd/429B9777-133B-40F1-8E98-77D70CC9A5C2" title="http://www.ramusa.org/#!Stan-Brock-A-Voice-for-the-forgotten/cphd/429B9777-133B-40F1-8E98-77D70CC9A5C2">http://www.ramusa.org/#!Stan-Brock-A-Voice-for-the-forgotten/cphd/429B9777-133B-40F1-8E98-77D70CC9A5C2</a></p>

Stan Brock of Remote Area Medical Addresses US Congress On Behalf Of the American People Who Have No Access to Healthcare Due to a Damaged and Broken System..

Now this is news while everyone was busy fiddling around with the CMS MD claim data base.  This is much more important than that because we ...

Read more »

Protesters Show Up at New York Interfaith Hospital, Ambulances Stopped From Coming to Hospital, CEO Gets Fires as Hospital Hangs On, Ambulances Come Back…

<p>If you watch the video here the hospital did get some money to stay open until March <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="149" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-SRQyvb9SzvU/UtoE6iExDTI/AAAAAAABJKo/k4zfwPOi8VE/image%25255B8%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="215" />from the the State of New York; however the hospital board refused to turn over the operations to another hospital so the CEO has to stop ambulance services.  Protesters showed up and then CEO was fired.  The state Dormitory Authority still has to work out the funding here soon.  </p> <p>Another one has been names to replace him short term.  The folks in Brooklyn want their hospital but it is out of money like a few others today and had filed bankruptcy a year ago.  Here’s a back link with some additional history.  </p> <p><strong><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/interfaith-medical-center-in-brooklyn.html">Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn to File Chapter 11–Can’t Even Afford Malpractice Insurance and Payroll Might be Next…Desperate Hospitals Returns</a></strong></p> <p>Mayor Bill de Blasio included this hospital as one he committed to try to save.  BD</p> <p><iframe noresize="noresize" height="332" marginheight="0" src="http://launch.newsinc.com/?type=VideoPlayer/Default&widgetId=1&trackingGroup=69016&siteSection=wpix_localnews&videoId=25477672" frameborder="no" width="440" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no"></iframe></p> <hr />Facing a renewed threat of a shutdown, hospital workers occupied Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn Friday afternoon as the hospital’s chief executive shut himself inside his office until the police arrived to escort him out, witnesses said. <p>Dozens of people gathered outside the executive suite at about 2:30 p.m. on Friday, half an hour after an order went out to stop accepting patients dropped off by ambulances.</p> <p>Interfaith, which serves primarily poor patients in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, filed for bankruptcy protection a year ago. It is one of several community hospitals Mayor <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/bill_de_blasio/index.html?inline=nyt-per">Bill de Blasio</a> pledged in his inauguration speech that he would fight to save.</p> <p>Ms. Krantz said the order to stop ambulances from coming to the hospital had been issued at the hospital’s request because of a dispute over $3.5 million that the state had promised it in December so that it could continue operations. She said that the state Dormitory Authority had made the money contingent on Interfaith’s turning its clinic operations over to another hospital. When Interfaith’s board refused to do so this week, she said, the authority withheld the money </p> <p><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/nyregion/hospital-is-occupied-by-protesters.html?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytmetro" title="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/nyregion/hospital-is-occupied-by-protesters.html?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytmetro">http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/nyregion/hospital-is-occupied-by-protesters.html?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytmetro</a></p>

Protesters Show Up at New York Interfaith Hospital, Ambulances Stopped From Coming to Hospital, CEO Gets Fires as Hospital Hangs On, Ambulances Come Back…

If you watch the video here the hospital did get some money to stay open until March from the the State of New York; however the hospital bo...

Read more »

Century City Hospital In West LA To Get a New Life, A Rehab Hospital Investment For UCLA and Cedar Sinai Hospitals

<p>This hospital has been closed since 2008 and was one of the hospitals that catered to the <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="179" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-NH84pnyr5e0/Up2SOJhOQZI/AAAAAAABIu8/6uoy1R0LTzY/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="248" />stars and if you saw the Bucket List, part of the movie were filmed there.  You can read back where the hospital went bankrupt in 2008 as the doctors that converted the hospital to it’s state of the art facility could not get any investors to keep it going. </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2008/08/desperate-hospitals-century-city.html">Desperate Hospitals - Century City Doctors Hospital (Los Angeles) begins shutting down, others file Chapter 11 to reorganize</a></h5> <p>Cedars Sinai and UCLA Medical Center along with a management company, <a href="http://www.selectmedical.com/about/history/">Select Medical</a> are all in on the deal.  There’s competition but not directly on the west LA side so this will be closer and it’s a darn nice facility and the top floors of the building still house doctors offices.</p> <p>Between both hospitals there’s only 39 beds available so could almost guess they are probably full most of the time.  Both Cedars and UCLA compete and are not too far from each other but this is something they both need, and thus the venture.  BD  </p> <p> <hr />Two longtime rivals, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/health/health-organizations/cedars-sinai-medical-center-ORNPR000106.topic">Cedars-Sinai Medical Center</a> and <a href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/education/colleges-universities/university-of-california-los-angeles-OREDU0000192268.topic">UCLA</a> Health System, are teaming up to open a 138-bed rehabilitation hospital in Century City, reflecting both the growing need for this specialty care and the pressure on hospitals to control costs.</p> <p>The unprecedented deal between two of the biggest names in Southern California healthcare is expected to be formally announced Tuesday. The two healthcare giants in West Los Angeles will jointly own the new hospital along with Select Medical Holdings Corp., a Pennsylvania healthcare company that runs rehabilitation facilities across the country.</p> <p>The three partners say they plan to renovate the former Century City Hospital that has been closed for about four years and reopen it in late 2015. No financial terms were disclosed.</p> <p>The new hospital is intended to serve the rising demand for inpatient rehabilitation for people suffering from strokes, spinal cord and brain injuries and other complex cases in Los Angeles and all along the West Coast.</p> <p>The company has forged similar deals with academic medical centers in Texas and Pennsylvania. It also runs the well-known Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in New Jersey, where the late actor Christopher Reeve received treatment. </p> <p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-1203-cedars-ucla-hospital-20131203,0,3829802.story#ixzz2mOX5zd5o">http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-1203-cedars-ucla-hospital-20131203,0,3829802.story#ixzz2mOX5zd5o</a></p>

Century City Hospital In West LA To Get a New Life, A Rehab Hospital Investment For UCLA and Cedar Sinai Hospitals

This hospital has been closed since 2008 and was one of the hospitals that catered to the stars and if you saw the Bucket List, part of the ...

Read more »

Serco CEO Resigns in Midst of UK Government Fraud Investigation, US CEO Assigned Responsibilities, Company Is Holder of One the HHS Health Insurance Exchange Contingency Contracts

<p>In July Serco in the US was given a contract from HHS to set up the warehousing operation to handle applications for Health insurance.  Their corporate offices are located in the UK and this is where the CEO is stepping down.  The link below tells about what they do as far as the company’s broad spectrum of services they provide.  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/obama-administration-doles-out-yet-one.html">Obama Administration Doles Out Yet One More Contract to Help With Eligibility Infrastructure And to Operate One Massive Mail Room-With Insurance Exchanges - Serco The Biggest Company You Have Never Heard Of</a></h5> <p>The fraud investigation is due to be completed next month.  For now the US CEO has been appointed as acting CEO.  Individuals Serco was billing<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="61" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-lmXaHUUxM00/UmqMCbHP9QI/AAAAAAABIQk/1-P3XGQEUFo/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; float: right; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px" title="image" width="153" /> for monitoring (prisoners) was not being done as some of the individuals billed for and listed were dead…amazing when it comes to billing how with technology folks can still make money and keep one technically alive on the web and where ever data is sold and accumulated…flawed data for profit.  Actually back in 2011 I wrote about this as one of the Chapters of the Killer Algorithms..they didn’t kill anyone but produced profits from dead people in the case of Serco. BD  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/12/flawed-datamined-by-corporations-online.html">Flawed Data–Mined by Corporations Online Provides Background Checks Riddled With Errors–Attack of the Killer Algorithms Part 7</a></h5> <p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/sercogroup"> <hr />Serco</a>, the services company facing an investigation into its government contracts, has begun an urgent search for a new chief executive after Chris Hyman quit in a desperate attempt to rebuild the company's reputation.</p> <p>After <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/aug/28/police-serco-alleged-fraud">allegations that Serco overcharged the government for electronic tagging of offenders</a>, the operator of hospitals, prisons and railways around the world needs to improve its relationship with the UK government, which provides 25% of its revenue.</p> <p>Hyman, who is leaving after 20 years with the firm and 10 years as chief executive, said: "At this time, nothing is more important to me than rebuilding the relationship with our UK government customer. In recent weeks it has become clear to me that the best way for the company to move forward is for me to step back."</p> <p>The UK and Europe division is to be split in two to focus on the "UK government customers" and the other on activities in the wider public sector. Three new non-executive directors are to be appointed along with a new general counsel. A board committee for corporate responsibility is also to be created.</p> <p><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/25/serco-chief-quits-government-contracts-chris-hyman" title="http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/25/serco-chief-quits-government-contracts-chris-hyman">http://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/oct/25/serco-chief-quits-government-contracts-chris-hyman</a></p>

Serco CEO Resigns in Midst of UK Government Fraud Investigation, US CEO Assigned Responsibilities, Company Is Holder of One the HHS Health Insurance Exchange Contingency Contracts

In July Serco in the US was given a contract from HHS to set up the warehousing operation to handle applications for Health insurance.  Thei...

Read more »

Hospital Lay Offs Coming Around Again…

<p>Here’s a few of what’s been in the news the last few days…<a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/news/2013/08/28/baptist-health-care-announces-new.html">Baptist in Memphis</a> is laying off 61 employees…</p> <p><a href="http://www.sacbee.com/2013/08/27/5683769/mission-hospital-in-asheville.html">Mission Hospital in Asheville</a> is laying off somewhere around 70 employees and they hope to keep it at less than that number…</p> <p>Big lay off of 500 employees in the <a href="http://www.registerguard.com/rg/news/local/30373308-75/peacehealth-positions-care-health-county.html.csp">Washington state area with PeaceHealth</a>, and<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="158" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/-GNpDSwrsGZY/Uh70WBv7grI/AAAAAAABHhI/Q4qsI5mMfeA/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="195" /> you guessed it right, this is not profit chain.  They employ around 6000 employees total.   The Catholic system is facing their largest budget gap in years and part of it was stated to be due to their Health IT purchases.  It’ not cheap, but they are still projecting a profit when all the layoffs take place.  There was also a mention of an cancelled contract with Kaiser Permanente in the Vancouver area that is also adding to the hardship.   </p> <p><a href="http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=200569">Northshore University Healthsystem</a> in Chicago will laying off 130 employees to cut costs.  </p> <p>These are just a few in the news the last couple of days and if you go back to around June 1st, you will find many more.  We have been seeing contracts that doctor sign with insurers that are complex and end up reimbursing them at rates lower than Medicare as the AAFP found.</p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-aafp-confronts-united-healthcare-on.html">The AAFP Confronts United Healthcare On Reimbursements, Some Are Below Medicare Rates In Parts of the US–Payment Algorithms/Formulas Calculated Deep Within IT Infrastructures Do the Job</a></h5> <p>Medicare rates initially were lower as doctors and hospitals made up the different on higher insurance payments, but it’s not that way any longer with Medicare in many areas being the highest payer in town.  Medicare could actually sue the insurers for this I think but the repercussions could be huge as all the Medicare contractors are pretty much all subsidiary companies of health insurance companies. Meantime back at the ranch the profits for health insurers keep growing.  Are we looking at yet another return of “Desperate Hospitals” when it comes to money?  </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2010/03/desperate-hospitals-returns-for-2010.html">Desperate Hospitals Returns For 2010</a></h5> <p>What’s going to be the next move when all the big mergers have taken place?  Health IT costs have definitely gone up and some of the subsidiaries of insurers are cashing in there too…<a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/07/health-insurance-business-under-radar.html">take a look at the truckloads of subsidiary companies one company has</a>.  </p> <p>As I stated before, banks and insurance companies have pretty much just morphed into being powerful software companies that control a lot of money with math models and complex algorithmic formulas for profit.    </p> <h5><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2013/04/banks-are-actually-just-software.html">Banks Are Actually Just Software Companies and the Same Can Pretty Much Be Said for Health Insurance Companies As Well-5 Unspoken Reasons Tech Projects Fail</a></h5>

Hospital Lay Offs Coming Around Again…

Here’s a few of what’s been in the news the last few days… Baptist in Memphis is laying off 61 employees… Mission Hospital in Asheville ...

Read more »

Roseland Hospital in Chicago Slated to Close Due to Debt, Local Communities Lend Support to Keep Open

<p>Desperate hospitals are still among us.  Ok so here’s the blame game, bad management says the government but this is a safety net type of hospital <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="164" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-iad89ZlzCP4/Ua4U4eMlLjI/AAAAAAABG1M/Ucfeip1IHtk/image%25255B7%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="206" />that sees many patients who can’t pay so a lot of charity cases seen here.  Where’s the philanthropy efforts when you need them.  According to this article they are just 2 million in debt and geez I read about hospitals who are much further in debt so the number seems small by comparison.  600 people will lose jobs and patients are being moved to other facilities.  <strong>The hospital also claims the state owes them $6 million.  BD</strong> </p> <embed width="410" height="324" src="http://www.nbcchicago.com/assets/pdk449/pdk/swf/flvPlayer.swf?pid=UzfEOmNk4MBM" flashvars="v=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nbcchicago.com%2Fi%2Fembed_new%2F%3Fcid%3D210015511&path=%2Fnews/local" allowFullScreen="true" AllowScriptAccess="always" /> <p style="font-size:small">View more videos at: <a href="http://nbcchicago.com/?__source=embedCode">http://nbcchicago.com</a>.</p></embed> <p>Roseland Community Hospital received notice this week that it must begin moving patients within three days because of its increasing debt, officials said. The hospital reported a $2 million deficit at the end of the 2011 fiscal year.</p> <p>Hospital officials said they are devastated by the moving notice and said they were expecting the state to repay them what they claim they are owed.</p> <p>“I’ve seen this hospital do a lot for this community,” hospital employee Paulette Perry said. “I love my job.”</p> <p><a href="http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/South-Side-Hospital-Ordered-to-Move-Patients-209906611.html">http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/South-Side-Hospital-Ordered-to-Move-Patients-209906611.html</a></p>

Roseland Hospital in Chicago Slated to Close Due to Debt, Local Communities Lend Support to Keep Open

Desperate hospitals are still among us.  Ok so here’s the blame game, bad management says the government but this is a safety net type of ho...

Read more »

LSU Medical Centers In Louisiana To be Leased to Private Hospital Operators To Keep Them Going As the State Makes Budget Cuts..

<p>This is interesting in the fact that the money from the leases<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="127" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/-NAQ4HAkytAE/UMfcvZ8G60I/AAAAAAABBOo/f1m5Ni6lJGs/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="155" /> will help get federal matching dollars via Medicaid, to keep existing beds and services going.  There were big layoffs planned but those are on hold for the new operators to come in and determine it looks like now.  Shoot looks like I am going to have to revive the “Desperate Hospitals” series as I have been avoiding doing it.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />These are public/private partnerships and came to be when the the state didn’t have many other choices.  There’s work to privatize more government hospitals in the state as well.  The care for the poor and uninsured now goes to the private sector but the article says they will still maintain a safety net role.  There’s nothing yet on how much the private health care operators will pay the state and I am assuming this goes beyond the cost for leasing the properties.  BD <hr /> <br clear="all" />BATON ROUGE -- The operations of Louisiana State University's public hospitals in New Orleans, Houma and Lafayette will be turned over to nonprofit corporations that run private hospitals in the three cities under outsourcing plans unveiled Monday by Gov. Bobby Jindal's administration.</p> <p>The lease arrangements were announced by Health and Hospitals Secretary Bruce Greenstein and LSU hospital chief Frank Opelka as part of an administration effort to cut state costs by turning over university-run health care services for the poor and uninsured to the private sector. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>The hospitals will maintain their roles of providing safety net care for those without insurance and of training new doctors and other health care professionals, Greenstein said.</p> <p>Cuts in services and hundreds of layoffs planned for January will be stalled, according to initial documents released by the LSU System, though future staffing decisions and service plans will be left to the hospital operators <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Ochsner Health System and Terrebonne General Medical Center will manage the LSU hospital in Houma, the L.J. Chabert Medical Center and its outpatient clinics. Lafayette General Health System will operate the LSU hospital in Lafayette, the University Medical Center and its clinics, according to LSU System documents. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.thetowntalk.com/viewart/20121211/BUSINESS/212110315/Private-hospital-operators-lease-LSU-hospitals">http://www.thetowntalk.com/viewart/20121211/BUSINESS/212110315/Private-hospital-operators-lease-LSU-hospitals</a></p>

LSU Medical Centers In Louisiana To be Leased to Private Hospital Operators To Keep Them Going As the State Makes Budget Cuts..

This is interesting in the fact that the money from the leases will help get federal matching dollars via Medicaid, to keep existing beds a...

Read more »

Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn to File Chapter 11–Can’t Even Afford Malpractice Insurance and Payroll Might be Next…Desperate Hospitals Returns

<p>Back in August the hospital was looking for a bail out and now it just doesn’t appear it’s going to happen as even back then they didn’t know<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="68" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-GMuMPO4yjs0/UL1lKYtl19I/AAAAAAABAvM/imfJEBth0pQ/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="156" /> how much longer they could meet payroll.  The hospital is just a few miles from Manhattan where the money they need is located.  At that time they needed about $10 to $30 million to continue.  Yes it sounds like I’m back in to blogging about “Desperate Hospitals” again, the series I ran a couple of years ago. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/08/interfaith-hospital-in-brooklyn-ny.html"><font size="2">Interfaith Hospital in Brooklyn, NY Looking to Need a State Bail Out And May Be Out of Money to Meet Payroll As Early as September</font></a></h4> <p> <p> </p> </p> <p> <p> <br clear="all" />In order to get help from the government they had to merge with with Brooklyn Hospital but that didn’t work out and now the hospital can’t even afford it’s malpractice insurance either.  Being self insured has it’s advantages but not when the reserves and bank balances have gone to zero.  The 2010 cut in Medicaid rates caused the hospital to have a drop of 40% in revenue.  BD <hr /> <br clear="all" />The hospital, <a href="http://www.interfaithmedical.com/">Interfaith Medical Center</a>, serving Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, has been in and out of <a href="http://nyti.ms/PFvrqD">financial trouble</a> for decades, with its survival dependent on infusions of state aid. In difficult economic times, however, the Cuomo administration has not indicated a willingness to continue bailing out failing hospitals. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>Interfaith officials said on Sunday that they had no choice but to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, given the hospital’s precarious financial situation. </p> <p>But they said the hospital had a better chance of surviving in the long term if the state would guarantee it about $20 million in what is known as debtor-in-possession financing to underwrite its operating costs during the reorganization. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />The hospital, at 1545 Atlantic Avenue, is so poor that it cannot afford malpractice insurance. In August, hospital administrators said that it was running out of cash and that they feared they would soon be unable to meet its payroll. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/nyregion/interfaith-medical-center-in-brooklyn-plans-to-declare-bankruptcy.html?_r=0">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/03/nyregion/interfaith-medical-center-in-brooklyn-plans-to-declare-bankruptcy.html?_r=0</a></p></p>

Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn to File Chapter 11–Can’t Even Afford Malpractice Insurance and Payroll Might be Next…Desperate Hospitals Returns

Back in August the hospital was looking for a bail out and now it just doesn’t appear it’s going to happen as even back then they didn’t kno...

Read more »

Medicare’s Payment System Continues As a Cause of Thinning Down the Number of Private Practice Doctors in the US–They Go To Work as Employees of Hospitals

<p>This has been happening for quite a while with doctors either quitting and becoming an employee of the hospital or selling their practices to hospitals which if they are nearby a facility, those look to the be most desirable for the hospitals.  It states in this article that the number of cardiologists since 2007 has declined to 11% from 62%.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Most that I know stopped the in office electo-cardiogram <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="141" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-mt-0ei5Cc8M/ULKyB6Or6yI/AAAAAAABAR4/AQibAEFsRIs/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="180" />a few years ago as it’s not a difficult test, but needed from time to time and Medicare pays a cardiologist $10 and the hospital gets $25.  These are small items and the bigger ones really add up.  The hospitals get paid a lot more, sometimes 3 or 4 times the amount for the same procedure and the cuts began a few years ago with both cardiologists and oncologists, and if they still maintain an office no longer do many of them stock the chemo drugs either as they can’t afford it.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Medicare reimbursements to hospitals are increasing as doctors get better with billing methodologies.  This is increasing some of the costs of care and on top of that it’s still not enough as hospitals are using the same justification for cutting back as many are having financial issues as well.  The funds are getting harder to come by in more ways than one and taxes need to be increased soon as technology helps but it also costs and is not the long lost answer that many thought would help keep the costs of healthcare down.  As technology grows, so does the cost.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/06/hhs-secretary-sebelius-still-looking.html"><font size="2">HHS Secretary Sebelius Still Looking for Tech Breakthroughs To Save the Day</font></a></h4> <p> <br clear="all" />In the last few weeks the hospital layoffs are once again filling up the news.  <strong>In any case it’s those government created business algorithms creating most of the shift and it’s not getting anywhere fast.  BD</strong>  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/11/wake-forest-baptist-hospital-to.html"><font size="2">Wake Forest Baptist Hospital to Eliminate 950 Jobs–Cuts In Federal Research Funding Cited As Well As Deep Cuts in Medicare and Medicaid–Is This the Return of Desperate Hospitals?</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <hr /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=health&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Thomas+Lewandowski%22">Thomas Lewandowski</a>, a Wisconsin heart doctor, was faced with a dilemma after his <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=health&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Medicare%22">Medicare</a> payments were cut and his overhead costs soared: fire half his staff to keep his practice open or sell it to a local hospital.</p> <p>He decided to sell, becoming one of more than 6,000 employees at Thedacare, which runs five hospitals and numerous clinics in northeast Wisconsin. It's a decision being made increasingly in the United States, creating a new dynamic that threatens to raise the price of health care even as the federal government and states strain to keep a lid on costs <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Private-cardiologists-selling-to-hospitals-4063646.php#ixzz2DGfBwEoW"> <br clear="all" />http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Private-cardiologists-selling-to-hospitals-4063646.php#ixzz2DGfBwEoW</a></p>

Medicare’s Payment System Continues As a Cause of Thinning Down the Number of Private Practice Doctors in the US–They Go To Work as Employees of Hospitals

This has been happening for quite a while with doctors either quitting and becoming an employee of the hospital or selling their practices t...

Read more »

Wake Forest Baptist Hospital to Eliminate 950 Jobs–Cuts In Federal Research Funding Cited As Well As Deep Cuts in Medicare and Medicaid–Is This the Return of Desperate Hospitals?

<p>Back a few years ago after the bottom fell out of the markets we had tons of layoffs and in the last few days I see them cropping up again.  950 is a pretty large number and Wake Forest is where they do all the research for growing organs.  They grow bladders there and have many other potential life saving projects that are on going so I hate to see any of those come to a close. <br clear="all" /><strong> <br clear="all" />Hospitals are laying off and all we get as consumers are a bunch of crappy mobile apps that everyone has been writing about that pretty useless.</strong> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2011/03/urethras-grown-at-wake-forest6-years.html"><font size="2">Urethras Grown at Wake Forest–6 Years Later Five Young Men Are Doing Fine</font></a> <br clear="all" /><object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,47,0" height="270" id="flashObj" width="420"><param name="movie" value="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="flashVars" value="videoId=1969815275001&playerID=1685956549001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAAB_xxr4E~,KlXoaM3qDg6TacBIKl94NQkAw9R_LQ2J&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" /><param name="base" value="http://admin.brightcove.com" /><param name="seamlesstabbing" value="false" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="swLiveConnect" value="true" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1&isUI=1" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=1969815275001&playerID=1685956549001&playerKey=AQ~~,AAAAB_xxr4E~,KlXoaM3qDg6TacBIKl94NQkAw9R_LQ2J&domain=embed&dynamicStreaming=true" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="480" height="270" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowFullScreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed></object> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>Over in California we have 114 jobs being cut at <a href="http://www.modbee.com/2012/11/16/2459442/memorial-clarifies-cuts-says-114.html">Memorial in Modesto.</a>  Over the weekend Kaiser Permanente announced some layoffs as well. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/11/kaiser-permanente-laying-off-530.html"><font size="2">Kaiser Permanente Laying Off 530 Employees in Southern California</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>In Orlando, <a href="http://www.wesh.com/news/central-florida/Orlando-Health-announces-layoffs-citing-cost-cutting-measures/-/11788162/17471682/-/v3mohs/-/index.html">Orlando Health is cutting hundreds</a> of jobs and everyone says that the layoffs will not affect patient care.  They all say that.  Government reimbursement drops also cited.   Layoffs loom at <a href="http://www.dotnews.com/2012/layoffs-loom-carney-hospital">Carney Hospital</a> in Massachusetts.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />These are just a few and there are more if you search but again the pinch is coming and again I will make my case for taxing the data sellers that get the data for nothing and the profits for free.  This could fund the FDA and the NIH as well as other areas of healthcare.  It’s obscene that in the media all I see is bitching and gloom and doom and nobody goes any farther.  Granted we have a problem here and those same stinking folks who mine data and make billions would certainly want to have good care if they took ill.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/09/one-more-good-reason-to-tax-data.html"><em>One More Good Reason to Tax the Data Sellers– Create Additional Funding for the NIH and FDA From Sources That Otherwise Are Too Greedy to Share & Contribute</em></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p><em>Again I’ll use my Walgreen example here that showed in 2010 that the corporation made short of $800 million, f<img align="right" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-nyFsMPDDLgk/UDEQa31432I/AAAAAAAA86o/sscFDo2n0LE/image%25255B21%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" />rom the intangible data selling only so how big is this pot, huge.  I have been beating this horse around here for a while now and we don’t seem to have folks in DC who can come to terms with this as it’s not visible and doesn’t create the stir that talking about abortions created, so when the digital illiterates get over their heads, this is the useless rhetoric we get and it’s pathetically all over the news and folks that know better just shake their heads in disgust, self included here as it represents no productivity at all and nothing for the “good” of mankind, just a bunch of old crabby folks out of touch that are stuck in the 70s.</em>  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><strong>Need more proof, read the link below…guy’s making a killing with millions in profits with collecting and selling data about you that is not even under federal law.  <br clear="all" /></strong> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/08/e-scoring-credit-algorithms-invisible.html"><font size="2">E-Scoring Credit Algorithms Invisible To Consumers Used to Market and Evaluate, Does Not Fall Under Federal Law And Such Are Used by Insurance Companies - How Will This Work With Exchanges –Attack of the Killer Algorithms Chapter 42</font></a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></h4> <p>Someone has to introduce some creative thinking here as it certainly is not getting done in Washington.  I don’t want to do another series on Desperate Hospitals and digital illiteracy is sinking the entire country.  That fear of Math thing must really exist in DC as we don’t have a soul that seems to be able to talk a little math.  Wall Street gets richer as we feel the pain of a Congress that is afraid of '”real math” and have been duped to their eyeballs.   <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2012/10/algo-duping-plos-one-journal.html"><font size="2">“Algo Duping” – PLOS One Journal Publication Explains Why The Fear of Math Plays a Big Role As One Underlying Reason We All Get Duped And Those Who Don’t Fear Math Take All the Money, Gradually, Using “Mathematical Formulas & Algorithms”</font></a></h4> <p>Get that tax out there and let’s start funding what is needed and the<img align="right" height="77" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/SviddHu3EqI/AAAAAAAAa4c/d3F6qqbmDq4/image_thumb%5B2%5D.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="83" /> rich will have to be just a little less rich. <strong>And for the men reading here, Wake Forest is where they grow those rabbit penises that hopefully will be available for humans one day so hope that regenerative research goes on hold as well.  That’s one for the women who read this blog:)  BD <br clear="all" /></strong></p> <h4><a href="http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2009/11/regenerative-medicine-news-fully.html"><font size="2"> <br clear="all" />Regenerative Medicine News – Fully Functional Rabbit Penis Created That Works</font></a></h4> <hr /> <br clear="all" />WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Wake+Forest+Baptist+Medical+Center%22">Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center</a> will lay off 76 employees this week and cut<img align="right" height="194" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/_v3zjJigoAPE/TXcqxIEEZ2I/AAAAAAAAtAs/FGBrmS-GsGI/image_thumb.png?imgmax=800" style="display: inline; float: right" width="235" /> a total of 950 jobs by the end of next June, the center's chief executive said Wednesday. <p>Dr. <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22John+McConnell%22">John McConnell</a> said most of the cuts are administrative positions, but some faculty members could lose their jobs due to cuts in federal research funding. He also said 2012-13 revenue is being affected by "deep cuts in Medicare and Medicaid payments, which constitute nearly half of our health-care reimbursements. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Michael+Walden%22">Michael Walden</a>, an economics professor at <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22N.C.+State+University%22">N.C. State University</a>, said he considers Wake Forest Baptist's action a "major layoff and a signal of challenges facing many hospitals who are being prompted to increase efficiency."</p> <p>"I think this is a bellwether announcement likely to be repeated across the state and nation," Walden said. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p><a href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Wake-Forest-Baptist-Hospital-to-eliminate-950-jobs-4037841.php#ixzz2CjSWjJgZ">http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Wake-Forest-Baptist-Hospital-to-eliminate-950-jobs-4037841.php#ixzz2CjSWjJgZ</a></p>

Wake Forest Baptist Hospital to Eliminate 950 Jobs–Cuts In Federal Research Funding Cited As Well As Deep Cuts in Medicare and Medicaid–Is This the Return of Desperate Hospitals?

Back a few years ago after the bottom fell out of the markets we had tons of layoffs and in the last few days I see them cropping up again. ...

Read more »

Hospitals In New York Encountered Data Disruptions with Electronic Medical Records Systems While NYU Scientists Scrambled to Save and Transfer Research Materials And Information During the Storm

<p> <p> By now we have all probably read about the dramatic evacuation at NY Langone but in addition to the patients themselves there were <img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="142" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/-xiCL0WZSATc/UJFIISSBJ-I/AAAAAAAA_e0/wZqtNoF43zw/image%25255B4%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="198" />a few other areas that were affected.  Of course getting patients out of the facility was the number one priority but there were a couple reports of some of the other items that are of importance as well.   Long Island Jewish Health System had their back up generators working but the data center that handles the medical records had issues and the Staten Island Hospital had to go back to paper records.  Sunrise Clinical Manager from what was Eclipsys was the system installed and is now part of Allscripts.  The NYU hospital websites as of this morning still appears to be down with a message that gives you an update on where they are in coping with the storm.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />In addition during the power failure scientists were working hard to save their research material as NYU Langone is rated top in the nation for their research.  Thousands of mice were drowned  that were used for cancer research  and big refrigerators were being rolled to areas to where there was some power, for a while.  The mice that died contained a lot of genetic research information, etc. so some scientist’s work could be set back a few years.  These were mice that were genetically altered.  I don’t know but depending upon how they were changed, the alternative of the mice populating with what’s already out there in the wild could be yet something else just to maybe give some thought to as well.  If you read in the news today this is yet one more concern from the storm, where are the rats going to go.  BD <hr /> <br clear="all" />North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, one of the largest in metropolitan New York with 16 hospitals and 300 ambulatory centers, experienced power outages at several of its hospitals. Backup generators were working, but a data center that handles electronic patient records for Staten Island University Hospital lost service and forced staff to use paper records, according to the system.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p> <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/10/31/northeast-hospitals-carry-on-in-storm-wake/#ixzz2AtFJ4VwQ">http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/10/31/northeast-hospitals-carry-on-in-storm-wake/#ixzz2AtFJ4VwQ</a> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>Scientists are in a desperate frenzy to save what they can and transfer what can be moved to other areas of the hospital. In one case,<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="127" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-nz8mDfJx6oY/UJFIKLhTLiI/AAAAAAAA_e8/B_xsFrLhZ8c/image%25255B9%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="132" /> scientists were rolling a big freezer -- the size of a big refrigerator -- to an area of the hospital with emergency power, the source told the News. </p> <p>Even more alarming, thousands of mice that are used by scientists for cancer research and other experiments, drowned during a flood. It is unclear how the mice died, but the source told the News that many of these mice are genetically modified for certain research and took years to produce. It will likely set back several scientists' work by years, the source said.</p> <p>"This does not equate to a loss of life, but it is extremely disheartening to see years of research go down the drain," the source said. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/nyu-hospital-storm-damage-research_n_2045844.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/30/nyu-hospital-storm-damage-research_n_2045844.html</a></p></p>

Hospitals In New York Encountered Data Disruptions with Electronic Medical Records Systems While NYU Scientists Scrambled to Save and Transfer Research Materials And Information During the Storm

By now we have all probably read about the dramatic evacuation at NY Langone but in addition to the patients themselves there were a few...

Read more »

Hospitals In New York Operate Partially or Completely Without Malpractice Insurance–Desperate Hospitals Returns

<p>Most of the hospitals operating without insurance of course are<img align="right" alt="image" border="0" height="165" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-8FuClcuNB28/UAOZt-rOY5I/AAAAAAAA8U0/anws3LjMDz0/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: inline; float: right; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="190" /> those that are financially strapped.  If you read the entire article though there are some interesting points made that lawyers follow the money trail for cases so if one were taking on a case, part of the research of course would to find out what’s available in the till.  One hospital in the article set money aside for this but it was only 50k.  Depending on the case, it might not even be enough to cover one lawsuit. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Other states do not require hospitals to have insurance and I have even heard cases to where doctors work without it, mostly in Florida it seems. One hospital, Interfaith, exhausted their reserves and has some big dollar amounts sitting out there that are not funded.  Other states, like California, have limits set by the law on malpractice cases.  I read further in the article and if the hospital is not insured, the next step is to see if the doctor has malpractice insurance and attach as case with that methodology.  Hospitals are not even required to tell you they don’t carry malpractice insurance and malpractice for the ER doctors is usually separate and sometimes the hospital will subsidize those policies, thank goodness.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />On the partial coverage some had policies to cover smaller and ordinary claims and not for big ticket cases and some had just the opposite.  Again as hospitals struggle with money, here’s yet one more area that gets hit.  Premiums have also gone up so not good news at all for hospitals that are barely financially hanging on as one case could force a hospital to file for bankruptcy protection.  BD  <hr /> <br clear="all" />Several of the city’s most troubled hospitals are partially or completely uninsured for malpractice, state records show, forgoing what is considered a standard safeguard across the country. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Some have saved money to cover their liabilities, but others have used up their malpractice reserves, meaning that any future awards or settlements could come at the expense of patients’ care, and one hospital has closed its obstetric practice, in part out of fear of lawsuits. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Executives of these hospitals, most of which are in poor neighborhoods, say their dire financial circumstances and high premiums make it impractical to pay millions of dollars a year for insurance. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Many states do not require malpractice insurance, and New York is not the only city where hospitals go without coverage. Generally the uninsured hospitals are in areas where juries award big judgments, insurance executives say.  Some hospital executives say, however, it is better to be effectively uninsured, because lawyers follow the money. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/nyregion/some-hospitals-in-new-york-lack-a-malpractice-safety-net.html?pagewanted=2&smid=tw-share">http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/16/nyregion/some-hospitals-in-new-york-lack-a-malpractice-safety-net.html?pagewanted=2&smid=tw-share</a> <br clear="all" /></p>

Hospitals In New York Operate Partially or Completely Without Malpractice Insurance–Desperate Hospitals Returns

Most of the hospitals operating without insurance of course are those that are financially strapped.  If you read the entire article though...

Read more »

Cheboygan Memorial Hospital In Michigan to Close After Sale Was Blocked–No Money to Stay Open

I sure hope I don’t have to revive my series I did a while back after the financial crash called Desperate Hospitals but in watching the news about healthcare today the closures are on the rise if they run out of money or don’t get purchased by a larger organization.  Even some of the big ones are running real tight today.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />Add on buying some software that does does some awry billing in some areas and fines levied don’t help either.  Sure there are cases of out and out fraud but on some of this there’s some algorithms in the software out there that should take some blame too as nobody certifies payer software like we do on the clinical side.  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" />The hospital is the largest employer in rural Cheboygan county and the ER room is slated to go first.  BD  <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /> <blockquote> <p>Cheboygan Memorial Hospital said it has been forced to shut down Tuesday after a proposed sale of the facility to McLaren Health Care Corp. was blocked, throwing hopes of preserving health services at the area's largest employer into doubt.</p> <p> <br clear="all" /><img alt="image" border="0" height="153" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/-TnCghfo8-Fo/T30qwSw-V_I/AAAAAAAA6Ng/PyugXLsVEUs/image%25255B3%25255D.png?imgmax=800" style="background-image: none; border-right-width: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; display: block; float: none; border-top-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; margin-left: auto; border-left-width: 0px; margin-right: auto; padding-top: 0px" title="image" width="390" /> <br clear="all" /></p> <p>  <br clear="all" /></p> <p>The sale of the hospital to Flint-based McLaren was expected to wrap up Tuesday but came to a halt late Monday amid regulatory issues, the Cheboygan Daily Tribune reported ( <a href="http://bit.ly/HGLSSk">http://bit.ly/HGLSSk</a>). The Board of Trustees of Cheboygan Memorial Hospital voted to close, saying it didn't have the money to stay open. <br clear="all" /></p> <p>The hospital's Chief Executive Officer Shari Schult said the facility's emergency room will be closed and that arrangements will be made to divert ambulances to other hospitals. She said in a statement that other services also will be shut down, including outpatient clinics, laboratories and rehabilitation. <br clear="all" /> <br clear="all" /><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-04/D9TTISCO2.htm">http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-04/D9TTISCO2.htm</a></p></blockquote>

Cheboygan Memorial Hospital In Michigan to Close After Sale Was Blocked–No Money to Stay Open

I sure hope I don’t have to revive my series I did a while back after the financial crash called Desperate Hospitals but in watching the new...

Read more »