Forbes: The Best and Worst States for Healthcare

In an effort to address the rising costs of healthcare and champion the case for universal healthcare coverage, The Commonwealth Fund conducted a new study of the best and worst states for health care. The report said, “Moving toward universal coverage is critical for improving quality and delivering more cost-effective care, as well as ensuring access to care.”

 


The independent group ranked each state according to 32 different categories including but not limited to: access to health coverage, costs and preventability of hospital admissions, how the poor and uninsured fare under a state’s particular system, and the general healthiness of people’s lives. Overall, its study rated Hawaii, Iowa, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine as the best states, while Oklahoma, Mississippi, Texas, Arkansas and Nevada as the worst.

 


Click here to read the story on Forbes.com: The Best and Worst States for Health Care.

 

Kindred shares slide on new Medicare rules

As a huge powerhouse operating hospitals, nursing homes, institutional pharmacies and contract rehabilitaion services across the country, Kindred Healthcare’s shares started falling after the government announced its changes to the Medicare reimbursements for long-term facilities. It will be interesting to see how Kindred’s payables will be affected as well as the impact this new ruling will have on other medical institutions.

Click on the link to read the entire article: Kindred shares slide on new Medicare rules.

OSU Med Center mulls how to help struggling east

Another prime example of the effects of the national healthcare cash flow crisis, the OSU Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio wants to do some rearranging within their healthcare system to help defray climbing medical costs. Shifting some patient treatment specialties to the Ohio State University Hospital East location will help the facility combat the losses due to uninsured patients and ones on Medicaid.

Click here to read the entire article: OSU Med Center mulls how to help struggling east.