News and notes from the day in MedCity, Ohio:
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland called financially troubled Forum Health in Youngstown “a critically urgent situation,” while three federal legislators appealed to President Obama for financial assistance for the bankrupt health-care agency, according to the Youngstown Vindicator. In a letter to the president, the legislators revealed for the first time that Forum Health received interest from four bidders should it decide to sell some or all of its assets while reorganizing under Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Forum has “three viable bidders for the entire system plus one bidder interested only in the Hillside Rehabilitation Hospital facility” in Howland, they wrote. Forum also owns Northside Medical Center in Youngstown and Trumbull Memorial Hospital in Warren.
Ohio is receiving $173,000 as part of a $3 million settlement with supermarket operator Meijer Inc. linked to the grocer’s employment of pharmacists who were blocked from federal benefit programs, according to Business First of Columbus. The settlement that involves federal agencies along with state attorneys for Ohio and Michigan stems from a voluntary disclosure Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Meijermade to the government stating that it employed pharmacists between 1997 and 2006 who were barred from participating in Medicaid, Medicare or the U.S. military’s Tricare programs. The Ohio attorney general’s office said Meijer cooperated in an investigation tied to the disclosure.
Market Trends to Watch for Health Systems and Their Specialty Pharmacies
The future looks bright for the integrated specialty pharmacy model – for health systems, providers, and most importantly, for patients.
Within3, the provider of online communities for health professionals in Cleveland, announced the release of mobile applications for both the Blackberry and iPhone. A surge of customer requests fueled the need for a handheld solution that integrated with the communities on the Within3 platform. “It became apparent the health professionals we serve were looking for alternative channels to access the activity and discussions occurring within their communities, in a format most convenient in their daily lives,” said Lance Hill, CEO of Within3, in a PRNewswire release. Within3 is working with early customers to introduce these mobile applications into their online communities.
The government agency that oversees Medicare suggested Friday that some small employers would find it cheaper to drop health insurance and pay small fines under a Senate bill designed to extend health coverage to millions more Americans, according to the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Meanwhile, a segment of hospitals getting less Medicare money might suffer financially, which could jeopardize access to care, according to the analysis by Richard S. Foster (pdf), chief actuary for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS.
Hitachi Medical Systems America Inc. in Twinsburg has been awarded a contract for open MRI products by MedAssets Supply Chain Systems in Alpharetta, Ga. Terms of the contract were not disclosed. The contract features Hitachi’s Oasis1.2T High-Field Bore-less MRI. “Hitachi’s Oasis is a unique product that combines high-field image clinical capability, image quality and throughput demanded by physicians with a superior experience and comfort demanded by patients, which only a truly open MRI environment enables,” said Sheldon Schaffer, vice president and general manager of MR/CT for Hitachi, in a BusinessWire release.
Medical Mutual of Ohio, one of the state’s largest health insurers, said it caught a record $7 million in fraudulent health-care claims during 2009, up from $6.2 million last year, according to the Plain Dealer. The privately owned Cleveland insurer, which serves about 1.6 million customers, probes an estimated 120 cases of potential fraud each year and produced more than 700 indictments since its inception in 1983.
Reducing Clinical and Staff Burnout with AI Automation
As technology advances, AI-powered tools will increasingly reduce the administrative burdens on healthcare providers.
The health care industry was well-represented in the Business Courier of Cincinnati’s Business Courier Fast 55 list of fast-growing local companies, according to Dialed-In. Of five category leaders, four were in the health care industry. Medpace, a clinical research organization in Norwood, finished on top in the $200 million or higher category. KeySource Medical, a generic pharmaceuticals wholesaler in Sycamore Township, finished first in the $50 to $199 million category while CH Mack, a provider of health care management systems in Blue Ash topped the $1 million to $4.9 million category.