Healthcare Financial News

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced more than $25.7 million in grants to increase and improve health and support services at federally funded health centers.

Overseen by the Health Resources and Services Administration at HHS, the health center system served more than 17 million medically underserved people in 2008, up from 10 million patients served in 2001. Since the economic downturn began, the health center patient population has grown by another 1 million people. By law, patients are accepted regardless of their ability to pay.

A total of 180 grants worth more than $21.9 million will give existing health centers the funds to add or increase mental health/substance abuse, enabling (i.e., outreach, transportation, case management services), oral health, or pharmacy services. Additionally, 48 planning grants totaling more than $3.8 million will be distributed to organizations in areas hit hard by the economic downturn that do not have health centers to help them develop new service delivery sites. New health center sites must meet federal requirements for governance, community involvement, quality of care, and financial feasibility.

Read the HHS press release.

For the eighth consecutive year, HFMA President and CEO Richard L. Clarke, DHA, FHFMA, has been named to Modern Healthcare magazine’s list of the 100 most powerful people in health care. He is one of only 12 who have made the list every year since its inception in 2002.

Nominees for the list were chosen from thousands of reader nominations. This year, readers submitted more than 25,700 nominations, up 76 percent from 14,600 last year. Modern Healthcare placed the 301 people who received the most nominations on a final ballot.  Readers then voted for 10 candidates from the list of 300.

The number of hospital stays in which patients left the hospital against medical advice (AMA) grew by 39 percent between 1997 and 2007 to 368,000 stays (1.2 percent of all hospitalizations in 2007), according to new research from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. The growth in these stays exceeded that of all other stays combined during this period (13 percent).

Uninsured and Medicaid stays accounted for nearly half of all AMA stays but less than 20 percent of all other stays.

Three of the top five reasons for hospitalization among AMA stays were for mental health and substance abuse conditions. Patients hospitalized for alcohol and substance-related disorders were 11.6 and 10.8 times more likely, respectively, to leave the hospital AMA than other patients. Nonspecific chest pain and diabetes with complications were 3.6 and 2.7 times more common in AMA stays than other hospital stays.