BUSINESS
May 22, 2013 | By David Sell, Inquirer Staff Writer
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey says he doesn't have an answer to the national need for balance in creating health-care financing solutions, but he knows that National Institutes of Health funding helps put and keep jobs in the Philadelphia region. "I focus on NIH funding for a couple reasons," Casey said in a meeting with Inquirer editors and reporters. "No. 1 is because this region of the country has made great progress, but also there is no region more at risk than Southeastern Pennsylvania because of the dollars the state gets.
NEWS
May 20, 2013 | By Michelle Andrews, KAISER HEALTH NEWS
When Maria and Vadim Brodsky's then-7-year-old daughter needed an MRI two years ago to examine a tumor in her head, they took her to a hospital in their health plan's network and were dismayed to receive a $4,500 bill. The couple had a $6,000 deductible on their family plan. And even though the bill was reduced to $3,000 - the price the provider and insurer had agreed to by contract - the Brodskys had to cover all of it. The next year, when their daughter needed another MRI, the Huntingdon Valley couple took her to a stand-alone facility and put the procedure on a credit card.
NEWS
May 15, 2013
WITH three first-degree murder verdicts against Kermit Gosnell, we can call him a baby-killer without the political freight that that term usually carries in the fight over abortion rights. There was no ambiguity in his actions, no debate over when a fetus becomes viable when he performed his illegal late-term abortions of some babies who were born alive. No one would defend his actions as legal, or protected by Roe v. Wade. The verdict may bring to a close the gruesome and horrifying details of Gosnell's butchery practice.
NEWS
May 14, 2013
L EO SAFRO, 34, of Ivyland, Bucks County, is CEO and owner of MultiCare Health System, based in Willow Grove. Launched last year, the company provides primary-care services to about 100 homebound patients, most of whom are seniors. Q: How did you come up with the idea for MultiCare? A: I was a consultant and started in home health care. I saw that lots of patients didn't have a primary-care physician or weren't seeing one. That increases hospitalizations and doesn't give people comfort about their health.
NEWS
May 10, 2013 | By Linda A. Johnson, Associated Press
TRENTON - Spending on prescription medicines in the United States fell for the first time in decades last year, slipping as cash-strapped consumers continued to cut back on use of health-care services. Patients also benefited from a surge of new, inexpensive generic versions of widely used drugs for chronic conditions such as high cholesterol, according to a new report. Total spending on medications dipped 1 percent, to $325.8 billion last year from $329.2 billion in 2011. Likewise, average spending per person on medicines fell by $33, to $898 last year, according to the report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics.
NEWS
May 10, 2013 | BY DAVID GAMBACORTA, Daily News Staff Writer gambacd@phillynews.com, 215-854-5994
TIME HAS not been kind to the library, city health center and recreation center at Broad and Morris streets in South Philly. Each of the properties could be described in less than glowing terms - old, small, rundown, outdated, take your pick. But the future for the heavily-used site is looking decidedly brighter, thanks to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. CHOP is planning to partner with the city to reimagine the one-block chunk of Broad Street and make it home to a pediatric care center and a completely new playground, library, rec center and health center.
BUSINESS
May 6, 2013
Bruce Broussard President and CEO , Humana Inc. Managed health-care company and insurer in Louisville, Ky. Age: 50 Tenure: CEO since Jan. 1, president since Dec. 1, 2011. No. of employees: 45,000. No. of Humana members: 12 million medical, 8 million specialty. Finances: $1.2 billion net income on FY2012 revenue of $39.1 billion. Regular reads: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Fortune, Cycling World, Sailing World. Recent book: How Will You Measure Your Life ?
NEWS
May 6, 2013 | By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Thousands of people with serious medical problems are in danger of losing coverage under President Obama's health-care overhaul because of cost overruns, state officials say. At risk is the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, a transition program that's become a lifeline for the so-called uninsurables - people with serious medical conditions who can't get coverage elsewhere. The program helps bridge the gap for those patients until next year, when under the new law insurance companies will be required to accept people regardless of their medical problems.
NEWS
April 26, 2013 | BY JAN RANSOM, Daily News Staff Writer ransomj@phillynews.com, 215-854-5218
This story has been updated. IN A MOVE that the LGBT community called "historic," City Council approved a bill yesterday that would require the city's health plan to pay for transgender city workers to complete "gender-confirmation surgery. " The bill also would require newly constructed or renovated city-owned buildings to have gender-neutral bathrooms. "We're continuing on the American road to full equality and civil rights for all of our citizens," said Councilman Jim Kenney, who sponsored the bill at the request of the LGBT community.
NEWS
April 19, 2013 | BY JAN RANSOM, Daily News Staff Writer ransomj@phillynews.com, 215-854-5218
THE NUMBER of Philadelphians who need free or low-cost health care has increased, and nowhere is that more evident than in the Northeast, home to a severely underserved, uninsured, high-risk population, according to health-care advocates. At Health Center 10, on Cottman Avenue near Bustleton, the average wait for first-time adult patients is 251 days, city Health Commissioner Donald Schwarz told City Council during a budget hearing Wednesday. That's 15 fewer days than last year, but still much higher than the average at all eight city-run health centers, 83 days, he said.