scoanet

Georgia

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Georgia Trauma Care Network Commission is rushing to distribute $58 million in funding to trauma facilities and specialists before a July 1 deadline. The money is a one-time infusion and remains the sole state funding for trauma care. State legislators were unable to come to an agreement this year on a separate plan to provide $74 million annually for trauma care. Research shows that Georgia’s death rate for trauma victims is 20 percent higher than the national average.
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Massachusetts

The Boston Globe reports that a recent Massachusetts law requiring state residents to carry health insurance has had the unintended result of highlighting a shortage of physicians. According to data from the Massachusetts Medical Society, in 2006, 53 percent of patients making an appointment with a primary-care physician were able to see a physician within a week of initiating contact, but in 2007, only 42 percent were able to do so. A member of an advocacy group that helped to draft the new law states that healthcare reform should not have been attempted without first addressing workforce shortages.
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Massachusetts

The Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) has filed legal action to "correct the wrongs" of a physician ranking program implemented by the Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission. The complaint alleges that patients have been defrauded and harmed and physicians have been defamed by the commission's Clinical Performance Improvement initiative—a program that uses cost and quality ratings to rank physicians in one of three tiers. MMS has asked the court to either stop the program or require that it adhere to specific standards, including transparency, fair notice, formal feedback and correction processes, meaningful physician involvement, and submission to an independent oversight authority.
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Read the complaint (PDF)...

Minnesota

Also according to Modern Healthcare Online, the Minnesota State Legislature has approved a healthcare bill to require electronic prescribing, create new rules to boost quality and price transparency, and tie payment to care coordination and performance. The bill includes the following provisions:

• By July 2009, the state would create a “healthcare home” certification for clinics that encourage the use of primary care, develop comprehensive care plans, and focus at first on those with or at risk of chronic conditions, among other criteria. Starting in July 2010, Minnesota health plans and state safety net plans must pay certified medical homes a care-coordination fee established by Minnesota’s health and human services chiefs.
• The state health commissioner will create a set of quality measures for public reporting and incentive payments.
• Starting in 2010, the state will begin publishing providers’ performance, along with cost and quality comparisons of similar providers.
• Physicians will be required to begin using electronic prescriptions by 2011.

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Florida

Modern Healthcare Online reports that the governor of Florida has signed a bill to streamline the state’s certificate-of-need (CON) process, including a "loser pays" provision, which requires parties that appeal a state CON decision to post a $1 million bond and to cover the other party’s legal costs if the appeal fails. The stated goal of the legislation is to improve access and competition while allowing hospitals to focus more resources on facilities and less on litigation.
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