Germany Moves Nearer to Cutting Company Tax to 30% From 2008
Bloomberg -
Germany, competing for investment with new European Union members including Slovakia and Poland that have cut taxes, has sought ways to cut charges by 2008 without pushing up his deficit. Steinbrueck, aiming to cut the deficit to EU limits for the first time in six years in 2007, still has to steer his proposals through parliament.
2006-06-19
Nonprofit health plan ails fiscally
Rocky Mountain News, CO -
"One of the problems is the people who we had left were all of the sick people," said Sherry Rohlfing, vice president of market and business development for Colorado Access. "Those were people who didn't ever turn over. They were the people who needed a lot of services."
2006-06-18
High-tech health care isn�t just for the OR
Nashua Telegraph (subscription), NH -
�It’s a continuum. We’re doing many things at the same time,� Muller said. �Next are two big things: in August, automating the electronic medical record for three practices in Foundation Medical Partners, the health system’s physician offices and automating the documentation of the care process, now done on paper, by replacing most paper forms with online ones over the next 12 months.� Systems will be installed in the remaining 40 Foundation Medical Partners offices over the next two years, Muller added.
2006-06-16
Flu pandemic preparedness urged at local level
Hanover Mariner, MA -
Gov. Mitt Romney in February proposed a $36.5 million preparedness bill, upon which legislators have yet to act. Sen. Richard Moore, Senate chair of the Health Care Financing Committee, said on May 31 that the committee was looking to produce its own version; the committee has a June 20 deadline. That version, Moore said, would likely allocate the same amount of money, but focus less on the ability of hospitals to add surge capacity and more on the needs of local public health departments.
2006-06-15
The Bloomberg Enlightenment, Cont.
New York Observer, NY -
"We're working together to toughen local penalties for sale and possession of illegal guns, to share "best practices" in enforcement, and also to oppose wrong-headed Federal legislation that would protect gun traffickers and the rogue gun dealers who supply them. In fact, more effective Federal action is needed on a broad range of issues. Our Federal system of government rightly assigns the primary responsibility for public health at the state and local level. We wouldn't have it any other way. But in meeting the challenges of chronic disease and illegal firearms, we also need our partners at the Federal level to step up to the plate. Federal law should make it easier, not harder, to choke off the interstate transport of illegal firearms.
2006-06-14
Richardson: A better way to pay for health care
Bryan College Station Eagle, United States -
The alternatives to incentives are regulation and litigation, both of which work on the principle of punishment. The certificate of need concept is the most recent example of a failed attempt to use regulatory policy to contain costs. Politics, lobbying and local interests have guaranteed that almost no one is denied a certificate of need. Litigation creates a bunker type mentality - us against them between the providers, patients and insurers. This does little to encourage the admission of and correction of medical errors. There are an estimated 44,000 to 98,000 deaths per year in this country due to medical errors - half caused by doctors, and the rest by nurses, pharmacies and hospitals. More people are killed by our health care system each year than die from AIDS, breast cancer or motor vehicle accidents, according to Sandy Lutz, director of the Health Research Institute at Price Waterhouse Coopers.
2006-06-13
Poland: Health care crisis provokes strikes and protests
World Socialist Web Site, MI -
The latest series of protests began early in 2006. In February, approximately 1,000 HCPs from 13 medical clinics in the southeastern region of Podkarpacie demonstrated against Poland’s deteriorating health care system. Citing low pay of 1,400 to 1,550 zloty a month ($450 to $500) for public-sector health care workers, the workers demanded a 30 percent pay raise, only to be met with empty promises of future government assistance by Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz from the ruling Prawo i Sprawiedliwosc (Law and Justice Party—PiS). Marcinkiewicz’s statement followed a meeting in late February with representatives from the official health care trade unions, chief among them the Ogólnopolski Zwiazek Zawodowy Lekarzy (All-Polish Trade Union of Doctors—OZZL).
1. What health care can be an expanded role for financial leaders: glimmers of changes to healthcare governance, policy, and financing are on the horizon.
In Pittsburgh and in other places around the country, we have helped hospital leaders perform thousands of hours of observations of nurses, unit clerks, ...
2. HCFA issues proposed rule on uniform Medicare payment policy - Health Care Financing Administration - Brief Article
While rulemaking by committee may seem like a roundabout way to promulgate federal regulations, representatives from the lab industry say that being ...
3. HCFA - Health Care Financing Administration payment policy revisions for Medicare - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included
HCFA has announced revisions to payment policies under the physician fee schedule for calendar year (CY) 2000. The final rule, published in the November ...
4. HCFA Announces Market Update for Acute Inpatient Hospitals - Health Care Financing Administration - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included
Acute care hospitals will see a 2.55 percent annual update factor applied to their Medicare payment rates in FY02, according to a proposed rule published ...
5. HCFA Revises Definitions of "Homebound" and "New Patient" for Billing Purposes - Health Care Financing Administration - Brief Article
HCFA has announced it is increasing the number of circumstances in which "homebound" Medicare beneficiaries may leave their homes without jeopardizing ...