MaineCare cuts could lead to hospital layoffs
Posted Jan. 13, 2012, at 6:05 p.m.
AUGUSTA, Maine — Hospitals may be forced to cut jobs and limit services as a result of Gov. Paul LePage’s proposal to overhaul MaineCare, lawmakers were told Friday.
The proposal, designed to close an estimated $220 million gap in the Department of Health and Human Services budget, would reduce MaineCare reimbursement rates for inpatient and outpatient services and cut funding to some rural hospitals. In total, hospitals will take a $50 million hit as a result of those rollbacks, Jeff Austin, a lobbyist for the Maine Hospital Association, told members of the Legislature’s Appropriations Committee.
MAINE COMPASS: Health care is basic human right; access to it is a moral issue
Alice Knapp
It has been both heartening and frustrating to follow news accounts of the LePage administration's proposed MaineCare cuts that would, among other things, end MaineCare coverage for 65,000 Mainers.
Heartening to read that as protesters held signs stating "Budgets are Moral Documents," Bishop Richard Malone of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland told legislators on Dec. 14 that, "Health care is a basic human right ... no less essential than food, shelter and clothing," and that, "Eliminating health care coverage ... is a tremendously risky enterprise that will result in worsening health, and for some, given the complexity of their condition, lead to premature death."
What They Don’t Want to Talk About
Ever since Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry started criticizing Mitt Romney’s actions at Bain Capital — and talking about the thousands of people laid off as a result of Bain’s investments — party leaders have essentially told them to shut up. That response is a pretty good indication of how deeply party elders fear the issue of economic inequality in the campaign to come.
“What the hell are you doing, Newt?” Rudolph Giuliani asked Thursday on Fox News. “This is what Saul Alinsky taught Barack Obama, and what you’re saying is part of the reason we’re in so much trouble right now.”
Maine Voices: Education transforms health care
Posted: January 15Updated: Today at 10:14 PM
Increased access to courses provided by the University of New England holds the promise of better care.
By DORA ANNE MILLSOur health system is in the middle of a metamorphosis. While we do not fully know the outcome of this transformation, we know it is changing the way decisions are made and health professionals and patients work together.
For instance, electronic health records and technologies that exchange health information now enable health care providers and patients to make more informed decisions.
http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/education-transforms-health-care_2012-01-15.html
Digitizing Health Records, Before It Was Cool
By MILT FREUDENHEIM
VERONA, Wis.
THE push to move the nation from paper to electronic health records is serious business. That’s why a first look at the campus of Epic Systems comes as something of a jolt.
A treehouse for meetings? A two-story spiral slide just for fun? What’s that big statue of the Cat in the Hat doing here?
Don’t let these elements of whimsy fool you. Operating on 800 acres of former farmland near Madison, Wis., Epic Systems supplies electronic records for large health care providers like the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the Cleveland Clinic, and Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, as well as health plans like Kaiser Permanente and medical groups like the Weill Cornell Physicians Organization in New York. In fact, Epic’s reputation as a fun-filled, creative place to work helps draw programmers who might otherwise take jobs at Google, Microsoft or Facebook.
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