Health

Ralph F. Moriarty, 92, of Gladwyne, an executive who envisioned a merger of Main Line hospitals into a single health-care system and brought his vision to life, died Wednesday, April 10, at Lankenau Medical Center of complications from a stroke. Mr. Moriarty ended his days in the hospital where he had served as president and a member of the board of trustees from 1970 until retiring in 1988. During that time, he had the foresight to see that with the changing economic climate, the Main Line's hospitals would fare better if they banded together for efficiency, said his son Frank C. Acting on that instinct in January 1985, Mr. Moriarty guided the creation and development of Main Line Health, which has grown to be one of the largest employers in the Philadelphia area.

Small plates make small eaters Everyone who has ever read a diet book knows this tip: Use a smaller plate, and you are likely to put less food on it. Now researchers have found the same is true for children taking food at school lunch. A study showed the "food environment" - conditions around eating - counts, the researchers from universities in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia said. The researchers repeatedly watched 42 first graders serve themselves lunch at school, using plates and bowls of adult size and half as large.

HARRISBURG - A bill to restrict abortion coverage in health insurance plans offered under the federal Affordable Care Act is moving through the legislature. A Senate bill sponsored by Don White (R., Armstrong) would prohibit insurance plans offered under the federally mandated exchange programs from covering abortions except when a mother's life is threatened or in cases of rape or incest. "Under the Federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, states have the authority to prohibit certain abortion coverage made available in these taxpayer-subsidized health plans, and we intend to exercise that authority," White said.

  AmeriHealth Mercy Family of Cos. of Philadelphia received final approval Friday to take over the operations of the financially troubled DC Chartered Health Plan Inc., which managed Medicaid benefits for about 100,000 Washington residents. The deal calls for AmeriHealth Mercy, which is majority owned by Independence Blue Cross, to pay $5 million for certain assets of DC Chartered and to provide $30 million in capital to AmeriHealth District of Columbia, a new AmeriHealth subsidiary.

HARRISBURG - Gov. Corbett on Friday moved to fill two vacancies in the upper echelons of his administration. Corbett said he would nominate acting Health Secretary Michael Wolf to permanently fill the post vacated last fall, and he tapped lawyer Michael Sprow to serve as acting state inspector general. Wolf, 46, of Enola, a Harrisburg suburb, was director of worldwide public affairs and policy for pharmaceutical giant Pfizer before joining the Corbett administration in May 2011 as a top deputy to then-Health Secretary Eli N. Avila.

  For all its size and strength in South Jersey, Virtua Health remains a community health system, leaving complicated care it does not do itself to partners and competitors. But the nonprofit system, which had more than $1 billion in revenue last year, is showing signs of broader aspirations. Virtua drew attention to itself as an economic driver in South Jersey on Thursday, holding a meeting at its new Voorhees medical complex on "how health care is boosting the regional economy and beyond.

The University of Pennsylvania Health System on Wednesday announced it had notified federal authorities, state regulators, and patients that a cardiologist may have performed unnecessary stent procedures at a system hospital. The doctor, Vidya Banka, 71, had medical privileges at Pennsylvania Hospital, but was not employed by the health system. He has given up those privileges, Penn spokeswoman Susan Phillips said. Outside cardiovascular experts reviewed a sample of Banka's stent cases from the last five years and concluded that medical tests did not appear to show significant blockages in the heart blood vessels of about 20 patients, Phillips said.

HARRISBURG - A state plan to close and consolidate rural health centers will leave uninsured or immigrant Pennsylvanians with fewer health-care options, the union representing nurses at those centers alleges. The closures "will threaten an already fragile public health system in Pennsylvania," said Kevin Hefty, Service Employees International Union vice president for the state sector. A lawsuit filed Monday in Commonwealth Court by SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania asks the court to halt the cuts.