Sen. Mellow now backs health care measure
After opposing a bill to expand Pennsylvania’s health coverage to uninsured adults, the Senate’s Democratic minority leader is now optimistic lawmakers can pass a compromise measure before the term ends in June, reports the Times-Tribune.
PA small businesses struggling with rising health insurance costs
After several years of relief, the rates small businesses are paying to provide health insurance are again climbing by the double-digits, reports the Central Penn Business Journal.
PA Health Care Assoc. seeks increase in aid for nursing homes
While occupancy rates at nursing homes and rehabilitation centers climb, Gov. Ed Rendell’s 2008-09 proposed budget does not provide them with a funding increase — an issue that is spurring the Pennsylvania Health Care Asssociation to push for more funds on their behalf, reports the Times-Leader.
Reading Hospital gets new pediatric unit
Reading Hospital’s new pediatric unit features many upgrades.
Wound care center opens in Centre County
The Center for Wound Care, a new outpatient facility at the Mount Nittany Medical Center, is now open to patients.
Nursing shortage expected to grow
While Pennsylvania’s shortage of registered nurses is currently being kept at a minimum thanks to scholarship funding and other initiatives; sources such as Cynthia Mailloux, Ph.D., R.N., chairwoman of Misericordia University’s nursing program, and the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services estimate that the shortage will grow much worse in coming years.
PA first state to spend Medicaid money on adult autism
Pennsylvania has become the first state in the nation to receive the federal government’s permission to spend federal Medicaid dollars on services that enable autistic adults to live more independently, reports the Associated Press:
PA not among states with laws to aid search for missing Alzheimer’s patients
Increased focus on Alzheimer’s has helped spread the use of devices that identify and track people with memory impairments, and spur a number of states (not including PA) to enact Amber Alert-style laws to enhance public searches for those who go missing, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Legislation allows cancer patients to pass on unused meds
Thanks to a recently signed state Senate bill, cancer patients will no longer have to trash or flush unused medication, says the Observer-Reporter.
Medicare non-interference
When Congress passed the MMA in 2003, they made the single biggest change to Medicare in its history. From the inception of the MMA law several debates ensued, however few were as heated as those surrounding the “non-interference provision”.