Sorry I'm late:
Why American women are having fewer babies than ever
They claim it's worries about money, which population growth in much of the poverty-stricken world would seem to contradict.
So what's the real reason? Subtle sterilization of men and women via chemicals?
Maybe you should call a nurse:
"Hospital CEO pay rises faster than overall health care spending" by Robert Weisman Globe Staff August 16, 2016
Pay increases for many top Massachusetts hospital executives outpaced the growth of state health spending in 2014, according to new filings with the Internal Revenue Service.
Leading the pack was Elizabeth G. Nabel, president of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, who drew total compensation of $5.4 million that year, up 119 percent from her $2.5 million pay package in 2013. Most of the increase was attributed to a jump in deferred compensation in 2014, the year she vested in a retirement plan managed by Brigham and Women’s corporate parent, Partners HealthCare.
Does the excu$e for greed in this are really matter?
The compensation data from the Brigham and other hospitals are contained in IRS filings by nonprofit organizations that are made with a nearly two-year lag.
Partners, the state’s largest hospital and physicians network, reported a 19 percent increase in total compensation, to $3.1 million, for chief executive Gary L. Gottlieb in 2014. Gottlieb left Partners early last year to lead Partners in Health, a separate organization.
That's after the nurses hit 'em up for $24 million.
Overall health care spending in Massachusetts climbed about 4.8 percent in 2014, according to the state Center for Health Information and Analysis. That was above a 3.6 percent target ceiling established in a law passed by the Legislature in 2012.
They always talk about controlling costs but never do.
In a statement released by Partners, its board chairman, Edward P. Lawrence, said: “We must provide competitive wages and benefits in order to attract and retain the best individuals at a time when health care is undergoing sweeping change. The competition for excellent managers and leaders is especially strong at this time.”
I'm $ick of that $elf-$erving $hit, $orry!!!!
Partners reported cuts in the pay packages of two other top executives in 2014.
Peter L. Slavin, president of Partners-owned Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, drew total compensation of $2.1 million, down 6 percent from a year earlier.
And David Torchiana, who headed the Mass. General physicians organization, had total compensation of $1.4 million, down 48 percent.
Changes in retirement vesting amounts reduced both pay packages.
Torchiana last year succeeded Gottlieb as chief executive of Partners HealthCare.
Other hospital systems also reported 2014 pay increases.
Total compensation rose 29 percent to $2.2 million for Howard R. Grant, president of Lahey Health System in Burlington; 7.1 percent to $1.5 million for Kevin Tabb, president of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston; 7.6 percent to $1.4 million for Kathleen E. Walsh, president of Boston Medical Center; and 70 percent to $1 million for Michael Wagner, president of Tufts Medical Center in Boston. Wagner spent much of 2013 heading the Tufts physician organization.
Boston Children’s Hospital reported total pay of $1.7 million for president Sandra Fenwick in 2014, up 41 percent. Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston paid its president Edward J. Benz Jr., who will retire early next year, $1.5 million, up 7.1 percent.
The largest health system in Central Massachusetts, UMass Memorial Health Care in Worcester, reported paying 2014 compensation of $1.6 million to chief executive Eric Dickson, a 41 percent increase from the previous year, and $1.1 million to Patrick Muldoon, president of UMass Memorial Medical Center, the system’s flagship hospital, up 58 percent.
Baystate Health in Springfield reported that its president emeritus, Mark R. Tolosky, had total pay of $1.4 million in 2014, when he retired midyear, down 23 percent from 2013. The current Baystate president, Mark A. Keroack, had total pay of $1.2 million in 2014.
They just cut 300 jobs!
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I can see why the nurses might have a bone to pick with administration.
Oh, yeah, btw, costs up are up for all you elderly and small business because Aetna is getting out of Obummercare.
"Body donations on the rise at US medical schools" by Collin Binkley Associated Press August 18, 2016
Many US medical schools are seeing a surge in the number of people leaving their bodies to science, a trend attributed to rising funeral costs and growing acceptance of a practice long seen by some as ghoulish.
I can see money being a factor here, and what will you or I care?
The increase has been a boon to medical students and researchers, who dissect cadavers in anatomy class or use them to practice surgical techniques or test new devices and procedures.
‘‘Not too long ago, it was taboo. Now we have thousands of registered donors,’’ said Mark Zavoyna, operations manager for Georgetown University’s body donation program.
One reason is that religious objections to dissection and cremation hold less sway today than in the past, said Ronn Wade, director of Maryland’s State Anatomy Board.
Also, bodies donated to medical schools are cremated once they are no longer needed, and the remains are often returned to their families at no expense.
As of 2014, a traditional burial cost around $7,200, an increase of 29 percent from a decade earlier, according to the National Funeral Directors Association.
‘‘Funerals are expensive. That certainly has something to do with it,’’ Zavoyna said. ‘‘Of course, it almost has this snowball effect, where you get five people to donate, and then their families tell another 25 people.’’
The call it the blog effect.
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Bye-bye!
NDU:
"Preventable medical errors reported by full-service hospitals in Massachusetts grew 60 percent last year, a rise partly attributed to problems detected in a single hospital’s dialysis unit....."
That would be Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.
Also see:
"Mass. hospitals in decent fiscal health" by Priyanka Dayal McCluskey Globe Staff August 25, 2016
Most Massachusetts hospitals were profitable last year, even as they faced pressures to control expenses and become more efficient in a fast-changing health care market.
CHIA reports on hospitals’ financial performance annually as part of its role to study the health of the state’s health care industry. Most Massachusetts hospitals are structured as nonprofits but still must produce some income to sustain their operations.
Among the most profitable hospitals were Massachusetts General and Brigham and Women’s, which are the state’s largest academic medical centers and are both owned by Partners HealthCare. Mass. General ended the year with $201.1 million in net income, while Brigham had net income of $60.8 million.
I'm sure the nurses will love $eeing that!
Net income was $76.8 million at Baystate Medical Center of Springfield, $60.1 million at Worcester’s UMass Memorial Medical Center, and $87.2 million at Southcoast Hospitals Group of New Bedford.
But some hospitals had significant net losses.
Overall, the figures show that most hospitals were able to stay in the black despite challenges. State and federal laws require them to control rising costs. At the same time, hospitals are seeing smaller increases in payments from private insurers as well as the government insurance programs Medicare and Medicaid.
The market has been especially tough for some community hospitals, which face strong competition from bigger and better known medical centers.
It's a “period of transition.”
Timothy F. Gens, executive vice president of the Massachusetts Hospital Association, a trade group, said the CHIA report includes some useful information but does not fully reflect what hospitals are experiencing. For example, hospitals often have to use their profits to subsidize related businesses, such as physician practices, he said.
This year alone, he added, hospitals are bracing for a $110 million cut in Medicare payments, largely because of a math error in paperwork submitted by Partners that federal officials declined to correct. And state officials are proposing rule changes that could result in more than $100 million in cuts to Medicaid payments, Gens said.
The CHIA report does not account for the financial performance of hospitals’ parent companies, which can lose money even if the hospitals they own are profitable....
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Related: CHAI Clintons
Looking more like born liars by the day.
