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For Medicare, Immigrants Offer Surplus, Study Finds

Immigrants have contributed billions of dollars more to Medicare in recent years than the program has paid out on their behalf, according to a new study, a pattern that goes against the notion that immigrants are a drain on federal health care spending. The study, led by researchers at Harvard Medical School, measured immigrants’ contributions to the part of Medicare that pays for hospital care, a trust fund that accounts for nearly half of the federal program’s revenue. It found that immigrants generated surpluses totaling $115 billion from 2002 to 2009. In comparison, the American-born population incurred a deficit of $28 billion over the same period.

The New York Times
May 29, 2013

Europe Should Embrace a Financial Transaction Tax

Opponents’ arguments are inconsistent and lack proportion, says Avinash Persaud, former senior executive at JPMorgan and UBS, and an executive fellow at London Business School. The banking industry has launched a concerted and broad attack against the plans of 11 European countries to impose a financial transaction tax. Bankers are complaining that the tax will kill growth, rob pensioners, make the European debt crisis worse, impoverish small farmers and more. On examination, the arguments by opponents of the FTT have three defining features. First, they are inconsistent. We are told that the tax will be so completely avoided that no one will pay it. Then we are told that the tax will bring economic and financial ruin. It is hard to have it both ways.

Financial Times
May 29, 2013

This Week In America, May 29, 2013

Less coverage. Considerable maneuvering is underway, as companies seek to achieve the very minimum contributions to employee health plans under President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. “Benefit advisers and insurance brokers.... are pitching low-benefit plans across the country,” wrote the Wall Street Journal. “Some of the plans wouldn’t cover surgery, X-rays or prenatal care at all. Others will be paired with limited packages to cover additional services, for instance, $100 a day for a hospital visit.”

Weekly News
May 29, 2013

California Rideout Nurses to Vote on New Contract on Tuesday

Registered nurses at Rideout Health Group will vote Tuesday on whether to approve a tentative agreement on a new four-year contract, the association representing the nurses said Friday. The agreement, if finalized, would provide some 400 registered nurses with a 9 percent across-the-board pay increase over the four years of the agreement with an additional 2 percent for longer term registered nurses.

Appeal Democrat
May 28, 2013

DPH Issues Finding Declaring Child Psych Unit at Cambridge Health Alliance an Essential Service

The Department of Public Health has just issued its findings regarding the proposed plan by Cambridge Health Alliance to close its nationally recognized child psychiatric unit for the care of young children with acute mental illness (see the letter attached) The DPH finds that this unit provides an essential service that is “necessary for preserving access and health status in the Cambridge Hospital’s service area, which for the children and adolescents it serves extends throughout Eastern Massachusetts.”

Massachusetts Nurses Association/NNU
May 24, 2013

Nurses strike averted after UMass Medical management and nurses reach tentative contract agreement

WORCESTER - Thursday's nurses' strike at UMass Memorial Medical Center's University Campus was averted and a tentative three-year contract agreement was reached between hospital management and the union representing 1,100 nurses on Wednesday. The agreement was reached after 18 months of negotiations.

The Republican-Massachusetts
May 23, 2013

Greater Taunton community voices anger at closing of Morton Hospital's pediatric unit

TAUNTON—State health officials were in town Tuesday to hear arguments for and against Morton Hospital's plan to close its 13-bed pediatric unit. The Department of Public Health held the hearing, which took place at the Taunton Public Library, as part of a state review of the hospital's proposal.

TauntonGazette.com
May 22, 2013

Study finds jump in ER-related admissions

Efforts to shift patients to lower-cost healthcare settings appear to flounder as the emergency department continues to play a larger role in where and how care is delivered.

Modern Healthcare
May 21, 2013

Talks collapse; UMass nurses to strike - Replacements start Thursday

WORCESTER — The nurses’ strike is on. Union officials representing 1,100 nurses at UMass Memorial Medical Center — University Campus and hospital management spent four hours negotiating Monday afternoon but failed to reach a deal.

Massachusetts Nurses Association
May 21, 2013

Hearing Set in Dispute Between Barstow Hospital, Nurses

A dispute between newly unionized nurses and Barstow Community Hospital will be heard by an administrative law judge next month in Los Angeles. The National Labor Relations Board has filed a complaint against the hospital. The hearing will take place June 17. The Registered Nurses at Barstow Community Hospital group voted to join the California Nursing Association-National Nurses United union in May 2012 and began negotiating their first contract with the hospital in July.

San Bernardino Sun
May 21, 2013