Story Archives of 'Hospitals'

Under a new bill, prices for various hospital procedures would be monitored and controlled by the state. Supporters say Maryland does this, and that it’s kept their costs down and made pricing more fair. But hospitals oppose the bill on many fronts, including that it treats them as the only factor driving up the cost of care, ignoring drug companies, insurers and the state itself.

Guests

• Maggie Hassan, Democratic state senator from Exeter, Senate Majority Leader and primary sponsor of the bill to give a state commission the power to review what hospitals charge for care
• Steve Ahnen, president of the New Hampshire Hospital Association

We'll also hear from

• Alex Feldvebel, deputy commissioner for the New Hampshire Department of Insurance
• Scott McKinnon, president and CEO of Memorial Hospital in North Conway, and a former hospital official at Union Hospital in Elkton, Maryland

As politicians in Washington were taking part in President Obama’s Health Summit, a new study has come out in one of the nation’s premier health care policy journals.

The latest on-line edition of Health Affairs Magazine includes a California study that shows that hospitals have a great deal of economic power.

And that power is driving up insurance premiums.

Economist Paul Ginsburg is one of the study’s authors.

As Ginsburg tells NHPR’s Elaine Grant, there are basically three reasons hospitals have so much clout.

On the face of it, Senate Bill 392 sounds pretty mundane.

The bill requires an annual public hearing -- and an annual report.

But if it passes, this bill would go far toward revealing the secrets of the state's health care system.

And proponents say ultimately, it could help shrink the state’s extraordinarily high health care costs.

NHPR health reporter Elaine Grant has more.

In his state of the state address, Governor Lynch promised that New Hampshire won’t wait for Washington to act on health care reform. He says his administration will challenge health care providers to reduce costs.

Some lawmakers in Concord are already trying to tackle the issue. But as NHPR’s health reporter Elaine Grant reports, hospitals are pushing back.

Hospitals in the U.S. evolved following scientific principals and traditions of Western medicine. In our immigrant nation, those practices may conflict with a patient’s belief systems and notions of healing.

Hospitals in St. Paul, Minn., have served a large population of Hmong people from northern Laos since the 1970s. Over time, hospital administrators have learned to incorporate some Hmong practices into routine treatments by inviting spiritual healers inside patient wards.

This collaboration between Eastern and Western beliefs is part of a growing trend in hospitals to make concessions that can help them keep sick patients in medical care. Hospital administrators have turned off smoke detectors, cleared out surgical rooms, and extended visiting hours to accommodate Hmong healers.

Joining us to talk about this is Kathie Culhane-Pera, the associate medical director for West Side Community Health Services in St. Paul.

The New York Times: A Doctor for Disease, a Shaman for the Soul

(Photo courtesy UC Davis Health System)