May 30 2013
Hospitals in the District of Columbia, New York and Louisiana deal with "structural challenges," cost-sharing and other funding issues.
The Washington Post: United Medical Center Must Address 'Structural Challenges,' Consultants Say
The District-owned United Medical Center needs to affiliate with a broader network of hospitals, doctors and clinics in order to have any hope of gaining financial viability, a team of consultants reported to city officials Tuesday. Huron Healthcare, hired by the District on a $12.7 million contract, said in a presentation to Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) and D.C. Council members that the city's only full-service hospital located east of the Anacostia River suffers from "structural challenges" that could complicate any partnership (DeBonis, 5/28).
The Wall Street Journal: SUNY Calls For Hospital Cost-Sharing
A vast network of Brooklyn health-care providers would be created under a plan unveiled Tuesday that officials said would make SUNY Downstate Medical Center financially stable and shore up other struggling hospitals in the borough. The proposal would involve SUNY Downstate, Brooklyn's only academic hospital, handing one of its three facilities, Long Island College Hospital, to a new operator or closing it and laying off staff at another, University Hospital of Brooklyn. The proposal doesn't guarantee that LICH will remain open, although SUNY officials and a nurses union representative said potential operators had stepped up to take over the struggling Cobble Hill institution (Kusisto, 5/28).
The Associated Press: Senate Backs Protection For Hospital Funding
The Louisiana Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly backed proposals that would make it more difficult to reduce dollars paid to private hospitals and nursing homes for taking care of Medicaid patients. Approval of the two measures came despite concerns that locking up an estimated $1.9 billion in the Medicaid program would leave public colleges more at risk to cuts during budget shortfalls, because higher education would be the least-protected part of the state budget (Deslatte, 5/28).
|
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
|
NYU Langone achieves eleventh straight A grade for patient safety