Medical blog » Higher

Tenet 4Q Loss Narrows On Higher Prices; Sees More Red Ink

admin — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:24:34 +0000

Tenet Healthcare Corp.’s
(THC) fourth-quarter loss narrowed as the hospital
operator saw improved results amid higher prices.
The company also projected a 2009 loss bigger than expectations,
, according to
Thomson Reuters. Revenue is seen rising to
$9 billion to $9.2 billion
, in line
with estimates, with admissions growth of as much as 1%. Last year’s admissions
increase was 1.2%.
Tenet, which has been struggling to gain its footing after settling government
probes in 2006 over past pricing plans, has changed management, shed hospitals
and made improvements that earned it good-quality ratings from the Department of
Health and Human Services. Still, it faces high supply costs, delays in key
asset sales and high debt levels.
, or
a share, compared with a
year-earlier net loss of
, or
a share. The latest quarter
included a
write-down from the sale two weeks ago of facilities at
the University of Southern California.
Revenue increased 5.7% to
$2.2 billion
.
$2.21 billion
.
Hospitals have struggled for years with tepid volumes of commercially insured
patients and large numbers of uninsured patients who can’t pay their medical
bills. Now, the credit crisis has prompted many hospitals to delay capital
spending and the recession threatens to further erode business.
Same-hospital adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and
amortization, the industry benchmark used to track the financial performance of
those hospitals under a company’s wing for more than a year, climbed 27%.
Same-hospital admissions edged down 0.2%, as more-profitable commercial
managed-care admissions fell 3% and government managed-care admissions increased
10.1%. But inpatient revenue per admission increased 3.6%, with the increase for
outpatients at 7%.
The company’s bad debt expense increased 23%, hurt in part by a decline in its
self-pay collection rate. There is concern that the weak economy, including job
losses in particular, will lead to more uninsured patients, uncompensated care
and bad debt.
Shares were up 12.2% at
$1.10
a share premarket. The stock has lost more than
three-quarters of its value since August.
, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-2310; shirleen.dorman@
dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-24-09 0825ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Infertile Men Have Substantially Higher Rates of Testis Cancer …

admin — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 05:07:20 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — 02/24/09 —
Findings from a new study in the current
issue of
confirm for the first time in a large U.S. study that
testicular cancer risk is higher among men with a history of infertility in
the past, compared to the general population. Previous research on this
topic was reported mainly from European countries with a much higher
prevalence of testis cancer in the male population.
In men with testicular cancer, the risk of infertility during or after
cancer treatment has been well known. But, other than such close
associations with major medical illnesses such as cancer, doctors have
generally thought the majority of male infertility is an isolated event –
not really a medical illness.
The study recruited 43,404 U.S. couples evaluated for infertility from 1965
to 1998 from 15 California infertility centers. Information on the male
partners was linked to the California Cancer Registry (CCR). Men with
cancer that preceded infertility were excluded from the study. The
incidence of testicular cancer was compared to the incidence in an
age-matched sample of men from the general population using
of the National Cancer Institute. In the infertility
cohort, 44 post-infertility cases of testicular cancer were identified.
Overall, men from couples with infertility were 1.7 times more likely to
develop cancer than other men. Among men in whom the infertility was known
to be due to the male partner, the risk of developing testicular cancer was
markedly higher (3.6 times) than the general population. Even when the
calculation was adjusted for age, duration of treatment, and treatment
facility, men with male factor infertility had 2.7 times the hazard of
developing testicular cancer.
“Male infertility is clearly not as benign a condition for men’s future
health as once thought,” says
, a
urologist and Director of The Turek Clinic in San Francisco, who was senior
author on the study.
Even more interesting is the issue of what common features may lead to
this association of past male infertility and future testis cancer. Dr.
Turek’s prior scientific research has shown that severely infertile men
with no sperm in ejaculate can demonstrate abnormalities of DNA repair, a
finding that has known associations with cancer development in both humans
and animal models. “We should begin to think of infertility as a window
into men’s health,” says Dr. Turek. “We suspect that infertile men are at
higher risk of other cancers such as colon, melanoma and even prostate
cancer. Future research will clarify this point.”
Research colleagues on this paper include Thomas Walsh MD, MS, Assistant
Professor of Urology at the University of Washington, and Michael Schembri
BS, June Chan ScD, and Mary Croughan Ph.D from the University of
California, San Francisco.
The Turek Clinic is a next-generation men’s healthcare medical practice
specializing in issues facing reproductive age men, including male
infertility, vasectomies, vasectomy reversal, varicocele repair, and other
minimally invasive procedures. The practice was founded by
, a
leading surgeon and former endowed chair professor at the University of
California San Francisco in May, 2008. Dr. Turek’s work combines
innovative and cutting edge techniques with the wisdom of old-world
medicine to treat and solve the problems of men ages 21 to 55 years of age.
For more information visit
.

Sector Snap: Women's retailers trade mostly higher

admin — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:51:02 +0000

Shares of women’s clothing retailers traded mostly higher on Tuesday, despite more data showing consumers were reluctant to spend this holiday season.
The International Council of Shopping Centers said weekly same-store sales dropped 1.5 percent last week amid continued economic woes and wintry weather.
On a year-over-year basis, same-store sales fell 1.8 percent, according to the association’s weekly index, which tracks sales of about 40 retailers.
Same-store sales are sales at stores opened at least a year and are considered a key indicator of a retailer’s health.
In a client note, Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Liz Dunn said consumers have been reluctant to spend amid tighter credit and a weak housing market.
But looking ahead to 2009, Dunn said retailers will handle the year “more gracefully” than in 2008 by looking for ways to cut costs and control inventory.
“Inventory discipline is not optional, and almost every company seems to be focused on staying lean until demand returns, instead of attempting to predict when demand will return and building stocks ahead of that time,” Dunn wrote in a client note.
Also on the positive side, Dunn said lower gas prices have put money back in consumers’ pockets.
Shares of Limited Brands Inc. rose 19 cents to $9.69. Elsewhere, shares of Chico’s FAS Inc. gained 5 cents to $3.94.
Meanwhile, AnnTaylor Stores Corp.’s stock advanced 10 cents, or 2 percent, to $5.10, and Coldwater Creek Inc. declined 18 cents, or 6.6 percent, to $2.57.
Christopher & Banks Corp. rose 3 cents to $4.80.
Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed

Benefits Enrollment Time Brings Higher Costs

admin — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:07:38 +0000

Kaiser, together with the Health Research & Educational Trust, recently released a 2008 snapshot and 2009 outlook for employee health benefits.
Cost increases for 2009 actually continue a modest cost-containment trend of the past three years, an improvement over double-digit cost increases before 2005.
But the real long-term effect on employers and employees is that premium costs have more than doubled since 1999.
In 1999, total family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance averaged $5,790, of which workers paid an average of $1,543, according to Kaiser.
This year, premiums for such coverage rose to $12,679, with employees paying an average of $3,354 out of their paychecks to cover their share of the costs, the Kaiser report said.
In 2009 — provided you’re fortunate enough to work where an employer-sponsored plan is offered — you could be asked to pay a bigger share of the premium cost, a higher deductible amount and more out-of-pocket expenses for prescription drug costs and office visit co-pays.
Exactly how much more workers will pay next year will vary widely.
Nationally, cost increases for employers who offer health insurance plans will average between 8 percent and 10 percent, a Mercer survey indicates. A Towers Perrin survey puts the employers’ cost increase as low as 6 percent.
But employers have said in several surveys that they do not intend to shoulder their increases alone.
Shopping the plan — trying to find another carrier for less money — is being done fairly reluctantly, area brokers said. It causes disruption in health care providers for employees, plus time and burdensome paperwork.
The most common response is to shift a larger share of premium costs to employees. Area brokers said a growing number of plan deductibles will exceed $1,000, with some getting kicked up as high as $2,000.
Some co-pay costs for office visits are rising, too. And some employers are shuffling their benefits packages in other ways.

Rochester Medical Q1 Profit Declines On Higher Costs – Update

admin — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:48:54 +0000

(RTTNews) -
Monday, Rochester Medical Corp. (ROCM:
), a manufacturer of urinary continence and urine drainage care products, reported a sharp decline in its first quarter earnings, hurt by higher costs.
The Stewartville, Minnesota-based company reported a net income of $54 thousand, down from $272 thousand in the year-ago quarter. On per-share basis, the company reported a breakeven earnings compared to $0.02 per share in the same quarter last year.
Excluding certain items, non-GAAP net income for the quarter decreased to $482 thousand or $0.04 per share from $686 thousand or $0.05 per share in the first quarter of 2008, primarily attributable to increased sales and marketing costs.
Two analysts polled by First Call/Thomson Financial expected the company to earn $0.02 per share for the quarter. Analysts’ estimate typically excludes special items.
Net sales for the quarter rose about 3% to $8.44 million from $8.22 million in the prior-year quarter.
The approximate 3% increase in sales resulted from a 4% decrease in Rochester Medical Branded Sales and an 18% increase in Private Label Sales.
Total operating expenses escalated to $4.25 million from $4.07 million in the same quarter previous year. Cost of sales totaled $4.51 million, up from $4.08 million in the corresponding first quarter last year.
Commenting on the results, Rochester Medical’s chief executive officer and president Anthony Conway said, “The 13% percent overall sales growth is good considering that our U.S. branded sales were essentially flat due to a 15% decrease in Male External Catheter unit sales instead of the usual expected growth. The decrease was due to the timing of orders from one of our largest distribution partners.”
“We are confident this was simply a timing aberration, and we expect those orders to return to normal allowing for resumption of solid U.S. branded growth in the second quarter. International branded sales increased 16% on a constant currency basis led by continued strong branded growth in the United Kingdom,” Conway added.
ROCM closed Wednesday’s regular trading session at $11.47, down $0.05 or 0.43%. Further, the stock lost $0.11 or 0.98% in the after-hour trade.
For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com

Deductibles march higher for employer-provided health insurance

admin — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 03:43:19 +0000

Baker said employers were bracing for potentially bigger increases next year. “Historically, downturns in the economy have often correlated with higher medical trends,” she said.
But higher deductibles could prompt cash-strapped workers to think twice about visiting a doctor, and healthcare experts have long argued that people who avoid treatment end up having bigger medical problems — at greater cost — later.
“What this says is that the employers are desperate,” said Len Nichols, an economist who heads the health policy program at the New America Foundation, a nonpartisan Washington think tank. “They are doing everything they can to reduce premium growth this year. But it’s not thinking 10 years down the road.”
There is mounting evidence that people are skipping checkups, tests and other medical care to cut their own expenses. Physicians and hospitals are reporting a drop in patient visits and revenue and a rise in late payments and unpaid bills.
A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that the shift toward higher deductibles had been most dramatic at firms with three to 199 workers, where more than 1 in 3 workers must pay at least $1,000 out of pocket before their plan kicks in.
That kind of “cost sharing discourages people from using services,” said Gary Claxton, Kaiser vice president and co-author of the benefits study. “The more cost sharing there is, the more it’s going to be discouraged. And when they are already worried economically, that’s got to amplify the effect.”
But small-business owners are struggling to find ways to control the escalation and stay afloat, said Michelle Dimarob, legislative affairs manager for the National Federal of Independent Businesses.
“This is very reflective of the tough economic times we’re in,” she said. “Healthcare is truly a pocketbook issue for both employers and employees.”
The trend toward higher deductibles could, in the long run, drive costs up by prompting people to wait until they are seriously ill before seeking care, said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a patient advocacy organization based in Sacramento.
“It puts the incentives in the wrong places,” Wright said. “It takes incentives away from ongoing and preventative care.”
As benefits manager for Santa Monica-based American Golf Corp., Jeff Kuehn said he wanted to avoid taking another big bite out of employees’ paychecks. At the same time, he didn’t want high deductibles to discourage employees from getting preventive care.
As a result, the company, which manages golf courses across the country, will implement a health plan next year that requires a small co-payment for preventive care, such as checkups and vaccinations, but carries deductibles of up to $1,250 for more specialized services, such as nonroutine diagnostic tests.
“We want to keep people out of bankruptcy and encourage preventive care,” Kuehn said. “We’re hoping people will start going in and getting their annual exams. We hope they will go in and get their annual flu shots. We hope people will go in and take care of themselves. And we hope we will have a healthier population in the long run, and that will mean less costs for us.”
Girion is a Times staff writer.

Health Net 4Q Net Down 70% On Restructuring, Higher Claims

admin — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:44:57 +0000

Health Net Inc.’s
(HNT) fourth-quarter net income tumbled 70% amid a
restructuring charge as enrollment declined amid rising unemployment.
However, the managed-care company’s shares were up 5.2% at
$16.17
as it
affirmed its earnings view for this year and revenue topped analysts’
expectations.
Health insurers have been struggling with rising costs, pricing difficulties,
investment losses and tight commercial risk enrollment, a problem exacerbated by
rising unemployment that is softening enrollment.
For its part,
$35.5 million
,
or
a share, down from
$116.9 million
, or
$1.04 cents
a share, a year
earlier. Excluding items, including restructuring charges, earnings fell to
$1.10
. In November, the company expected earnings of
a share, far below Wall Street’s then-estimates.
$3.9 billion
. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most
recently expected
$3.78 billion
.
Health-plan services premiums, the company’s largest source of revenue, grew
5.7% while its government contracts revenue climbed 21% amid higher pricing.
medical-care ratio, or how much was paid in claims compared with
premiums received, rose to 85.5% from 81.8%.
Total health-plan membership fell 1%, or 34,000 members to 3.7 million
members. The drop during the quarter was 22,000.
Besides reiterating its earnings view,
$15.5
billion to $16 billion
. Analysts were anticipating
$15.32 billion
.
, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5285; john.kell@
dowjones.com
Health Net Inc.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-03-09 0926ET
Copyright (c) 2009 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Study: Dallas doctors helping drive Medicare deficit higher

admin — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 01:14:22 +0000

Akron, OH
Albuquerque, NM
Anaheim, CA
Anchorage, AK
Arlington, TX
Atlanta, GA
Aurora, CO
Austin, TX
Bakersfield, CA
Baltimore, MD
Baton Rouge, LA
Birmingham, AL
Boston, MA
Buffalo, NY
Chandler, AZ
Charlotte, NC
Chesapeake, VA
Chicago, IL
Chula Vista, CA
Cincinnati, OH
Cleveland, OH
Colorado Springs, CO
Columbus, OH
Corpus Christi, TX
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Detroit, MI
Durham, NC
El Paso, TX
Fort Wayne, IN
Fort Worth, TX
Fremont, CA
Fresno, CA
Garland, TX
Glendale, AZ
Glendale, CA
Greensboro, NC
Hartford, CT
Henderson, NV
Hialeah, FL
Honolulu, HI
Houston, TX
Indianapolis, IN
Jacksonville, FL
Jersey City, NJ
Kansas City, MO
Laredo, TX
Las Vegas, NV
Lexington, KY
Lincoln, NE
London, EN
Long Beach, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Louisville, KY
Lubbock, TX
Madison, WI
Memphis, TN
Mesa, AZ
Miami, FL
Milwaukee, WI
Minneapolis, MN
Modesto, CA
Montgomery, AL
Montreal, QC
Nashville, TN
New Orleans, LA
New York, NY
Newark, NJ
Norfolk, VA
Oakland, CA
Oklahoma City, OK
Omaha, NE
Orlando, FL
Paris, FR
Philadelphia, PA
Phoenix, AZ
Pittsburgh, PA
Plano, TX
Portland, OR
Raleigh, NC
Riverside, CA
Rochester, NY
Sacramento, CA
Saint Louis, MO
Saint Paul, MN
Saint Petersburg, FL
San Antonio, TX
San Diego, CA
San Francisco, CA
San Jose, CA
San Juan, PR
Santa Ana, CA
Scottsdale, AZ
Seattle, WA
Shreveport, LA
Stockton, CA
Tampa, FL
Toledo, OH
Toronto, ON
Tucson, AZ
Tulsa, OK
Vancouver, BC
Virginia Beach, VA
Washington, DC
Wichita, KS

Food safety should be higher on US menu

admin — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:25:35 +0000

Published: Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Food safety should be higher on U.S. menu
A town hall question to the presidential candidates: What will you do to ensure food safety in this era of fatal E. Coli outbreaks and melamine contamination? What will you do to make the FDA and USDA more effective?
Where are we now? A New Jersey company is recalling a yogurt-type drink from China called “Blue Cat Flavor Drink” after FDA testing found melamine. This latest discovery coincides with new rules that went into effect this month requiring “country of origin” labels for fresh meat and produce. Alas, there are loopholes. Since “Blue Cat Flavor Drink” is a processed food product, it doesn’t fall under the labeling requirement. (In this case, however, the product’s own label, the one that says “Blue Cat Flavor Drink” should be enough warning to
.)
Foods requiring a label include most cuts of beef, lamb, chicken, goat and pork and their ground-meat versions; perishable agricultural products like fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables and macadamia nuts, pecans and peanuts. But the minute any of those foods are mixed together or altered (like through roasting), they are considered “processed” and are excluded from the labeling requirements. Salad mixes that contain more than one kind of lettuce are excluded, as are bacon, “organ meats,” marinated meats, etc.
Consumers fending for themselves need to remember that just because a food product doesn’t have a label, it’s incorrect to assume it’s a product of the United States.
It’s also important to remember that the “country of origin” of certain food culprits causing recent E. Coli outbreaks, such as spinach and lettuce, was the United States.
In China, the melamine-tainted baby formula has sickened 54,000 children, mainly with kidney problems, and is blamed for the deaths of at least four. Meanwhile, the FDA reassured Americans that eating a miniscule amount of melamine — 2.5 parts per million — would not raise health concerns, even if a person ate food every day that was tainted with the chemical. FDA officials also stressed that their “risk assessment” does not mean U.S. authorities will condone foods deliberately spiked with the chemical. Again, that is supposed to be reassuring.
Considering the pet food recall last year, and the current sick and dying Chinese children, it’s evident that some food suppliers in China deliberately spike products with melamine and who knows what else. What preventive steps should we take as we import more and more food?
Like our food safety measures, the “country of origin” labels are entirely inadequate. Just as ingredient labels are dangerously incomplete — since they don’t list such “additives” as melamine, let alone which country the melamine came from.

Women Pay Higher Premiums Than Men Of The Same Age For Identical …

admin — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:00:49 +0000

Women generally pay “much more” than men of the same age for identical individual health insurance policies, according to data from insurance companies and online brokers, the
reports. Insurance companies say that this is because women ages 19 to 55 typically use more health services than men, especially during their childbearing years. According to the insurers, women are more likely than men to visit doctors, to get regular checkups, to take prescription medications and to have certain chronic illnesses. Some women still pay more for coverage under policies that do not cover maternity care, while other health plans charge women extra for optional maternity benefits, according to the
.
Some states — such as Maine, Montana and New York — have laws prohibiting gender-based premium rates for individual health insurance policies. In addition, civil rights laws ban employer-sponsored health plans from setting different premium rates for the same benefits based on gender, according to the
.
, the analysis comes as the sagging economy is forcing more people who have lost jobs that offered health benefits to purchase individual health plans. Meanwhile, Democratic and Republican lawmakers have proposed plans that would expand the use of the individual coverage market, such as tax credit programs for consumers or providing other assistance for people to purchase their own coverage. Marcia Greenberger — co-president of the
, which examined hundreds of individual policies — said without significant changes to the individual coverage market, tax credits would be worth less to women because they would pay higher premiums.
Cecil Bykerk, president of the Society of Actuaries and former vice president of Mutual of Omaha, said, “If maternity care is included as a benefit, it drives up rates for everybody, making the whole policy less affordable.” Similarly, Elizabeth Leif, a health insurance actuary in Denver, said that many state insurance laws require insurers to cover the cost of caring for complications related to pregnancies, which insurers say can drive up costs. Thomas Noland, a senior vice president of Humana, said, “Premiums for our individual health insurance plans reflect claims experience — the use of medical services — which varies by gender and age,” adding, “Bearing children increases other health risks later in life, such as urinary incontinence, which may require treatment with medication or surgery.”
Greenberger said, “The wide variation in premiums could not possibly be justified by actuarial principles,” adding, “We should not tolerate women having to pay more for health insurance, just as we do not tolerate the practice of using race as a factor in setting rates.” Mila Kofman, an insurance superintendent in Maine, said, “There’s a strong public policy reason to prohibit gender-based rates. Only women can bear children. There’s an expense to that.” However, Kofman added that “having babies benefits communities and societies as a whole. Women should not have to bear the entire expense” (Pear,
, 10/30).
. You can view the entire Daily Women’s Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery
. The Daily Women’s Health Policy Report is a free service of the
, published by The Advisory Board Company.
2008 The Advisory Board Company. All rights reserved.
For any corrections of factual information, or to contact the editors please use our
.