Health Beat: Healthcare Hiring Booming, Report Says

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HEALTHCARE HIRING BOOMING, REPORT SAYS
As the U.S. economy continues to add jobs, one sector that is experiencing robust hiring is the health care sector.

According to a report by 2015 HireRight Health Care Spotlight, 58% of health care organizations anticipate growing their workforces in the coming year, with nearly a quarter of those expecting hiring increases greater than 6%.

The increase in hiring for health care, however, is not just inspired by general optimism, but by the needs of an aging population, increased health care spending, and a larger segment of the population receiving health care as a result of the Affordable Care Act, the report says.

In addition, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects an increase of nearly five million jobs from 2012 to 2022 in the health care sector. This would bring the total health care labor market to 22 million jobs, reflecting a 29% increase in employment in the sector, and one-third of all new jobs created in the decade.

In Arkansas’ latest employment report, year-over-year employment in the health care sector climbed by 4,400 jobs.

DOCTORS’ LOBBY ADOPTS MEASURES TO IMPROVE HEALTHCARE ACCESS FOR VETERANS
The American Medical Association (AMA) voted to adopt new policies to ensure U.S. military veterans can quickly and easily access primary and specialty health care close to home, the nation’s largest physician organization announced Tuesday at its annual meeting.

The measure was part of a consensus reached by the AMA’s powerful House of Delegates on emerging issues in public health, science, ethics, business and government. The new veteran-friendly policy also calls on the AMA to advocate for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system to hire additional primary and specialty physicians both full-and part-time as needed to address this important issue.

Last year, an audit released by the VA found that more than 57,000 veterans were awaiting their first medical appointment at VA medical facilities across the country, while 64,000 who had enrolled in the VA’s health care system never even had an appointment.

This prompted the AMA during its 2014 annual meeting to urge President Obama and Congress to rapidly enact long-term solutions so that eligible veterans do not have to wait to receive vital health care services.

PRESIDENT TO SPEAK ON SUCCESS OF AFFORDABLE CARE ACT TODAY
President Obama will give the keynote address at the annual conference of the Catholic Health Association Wednesday (June 10), where he will speak on how the Affordable Care Act has become of the fabric of an improved American healthcare system, White House officials said.

“The President will discuss how the passage of the Affordable Care Act reflects our values and the kind of country we strive to be,” officials said. Additionally, the White House released updated data on how ACA is operating in every state.

The fact sheet on Arkansas shows that the uninsured rate in Arkansas in 2014 was 11.4%, down from 22.5% in 2013, according to a Gallup poll.

STUDY: SOME HOSPITAL MARKUP CHARGES FOR OUT-OF-NETWORK PATIENTS, UNINSURED UP 1,000%
The 50 hospitals in the United States with the highest markup of prices over their actual costs are charging out-of-network patients and the uninsured, as well as auto and workers’ compensation insurers, more than 10 times the costs allowed by Medicare, according to a new report from John Hopkins University.

The findings, from Gerard F. Anderson of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Ge Bai of Washington and Lee University, show that the combination of a lack of regulation of hospital charges in the United States and no market competition is leading to price-gouging that trickles down to nearly all consumers. The report is published in the June issue of Health Affairs.

For their study, Anderson and Bai analyzed the 2012 Medicare cost reports from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to determine a charge-to-cost ratio, an indicator of how much hospitals are marking up charges beyond what Medicare agrees to pay for those with its government-subsidized health insurance.