Hawaii funds physician training to combat doctor shortage
Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle has released $140,000 for a physician training program designed to help ease the state’s worsening doctor shortage. Lingle made the announcement at the Hawaii Physician Workforce Summit. The state is already short at least 500 doctors across all specialties and will lose more than 130 each year as its aging physician workforce retires. The monies will be used for Hilo residency development expenses and clinical faculty recruitment. The funds will be split evenly between fiscal years 2009-2010 and 2010-2011.
Survey: Medical practice managers struggling with operating costs
Medical practice managers cite “dealing with rising operating costs” as their biggest daily challenge in 2010, according to a new Medical Group Management Association survey. In the survey, “Medical Practice Today: What Members Have to Say,” medical practice professionals sounded off about their biggest daily challenges, as well as their struggles to safeguard their practices' financial solvency. The other top challenges of running group practices are: managing finances with the uncertainty of Medicare reimbursement rates and selecting and implementing a new electronic health record system.
Study: State policies can impact generic substitutions, Medicaid costs
More lenient state laws governing generic drug substitutions could result in savings in excess of $100 million, according to a recent study. States struggling to pay for increasing healthcare costs through their Medicaid programs could see those savings over the next several years by permitting easier and faster substitutions of generics for brand medications, according CVS Caremark’s study. The study looked at how quickly Medicaid recipients moved to generic equivalent medications under three different state statutes – mandatory versus permissive substitution, with and without prior authorization, and with and without requiring patient approval for substitution.
New Markets Loan Fund helps Hudson River HealthCare improve primary care
With $2.85 million in financing from the Primary Care Development Corporation, Hudson River HealthCare has acquired property in Monticello, N.Y. to expand primary care and dental services to low-income patients. A federal grant for $200,000, secured by Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), will help purchase needed equipment for a new center. The funding will also add capacity at a neighboring 3,100-sqare-foot facility. “This community has long needed additional access to quality healthcare,” said Anne Kauffman Nolon, president and CEO of Hudson River HealthCare.