In a follow-up to last year’s groundbreaking study that uncovered the stunning truth that hospitals are actually businesses, WiseBucks magazine issued a follow-up report showing that to remain open, hospitals have to attract patients to receive care. The follow-up report is timely, given new legislation announced in Vermont that seeks to ban hospitals from spending money on marketing and advertising.

“Like the legislator in Vermont, we were flabbergasted that hospitals actually have to attract patients with marketing and advertising,” said WiseBucks editor Joe Duhh. “That’s how regular businesses operate, sure. But hospitals? That would be like saying politicians have to spend money to get elected – doesn’t it just happen?”
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The Senate Finance Committee will continue its investigation into abuses in community benefit reporting after a hospital in California accounted for $347 in topless car washes. The 2008 Community Benefit Report for SunSpot Hospital in Fresno, CA lists the benefit under its “Self-help program” category, along with its smoking cessation classes and anger management programs.

In a tweet this weekend, Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa, the top-ranking Republican on the committee, commented: “Hosps having topless car wshs I get, but $347? That seems like a stretch #welovechuck.” Read the full story »

A new service called Smatter is set to compete with the growing social network Twitter, but with a twist. Instead of limiting posts to 140 characters like Twitter, the new service will limit member posts to just 14.

“It’s our belief that you’ll get ten times the content value from posts that are one tenth the size,” says Smatter CEO Thomas Smidge.

The social media entrant will introduce a whole new vernacular as well. Instead of posting “tweets,” members will post “smatts,” forwarded posts will be called “resmatts” and group conversations will be “smatt-chats.” Read the full story »

Passed in 1996, the Health Insurance Portability and Accounting Act (HIPAA) was designed to protect insurance coverage for patients and provide a standard of privacy regarding the transfer of health information by providers, insurance plans and others. The law has been expanded over the years, and now Congressman Max Weber, Minnesota, has introduced new legislation making direct eye contact with patients by healthcare workers a violation of HIPAA.

“If you look directly at a patient, you may come to know them, know them personally,” said Weber during his 73-minute speech on the floor of the House of Representatives last Tuesday. “Where I come from, direct eye contact is awfully forward. It’s an invasion of privacy.” Read the full story »