Garden Grove Hospital Gets New Chief; CHOC Studies Asthma
Some 43 million Americans, including about 35% of the country’s Latino population, lack health insurance. A new federal bill aimed at helping the uninsured obtain coverage is getting backing from the Hispanic Business Roundtable, a Washington, D.C.-based group whose current president is Orange County executive Mario Rodriguez.
Roundtable members are “pleased to see a bipartisan group of legislators working together to improve access for low-income workers,” said Rodriguez, who’s also chief executive of Jonathan Gray & Associates in San Clemente. Rodriguez was speaking of the Fair Care for the Uninsured Act, a product of Reps. Dick Armey, R-Texas, and William Lipinski, D-Ill.
If it becomes law, the Fair Care Act would create refundable tax credits of $1,000 for individuals, $2,000 per couple or single parent or $3,000 per family to allow people to purchase whatever form of private health insurance they choose.
Lipinski said in a release that his bill is not an end-around to employer-based healthcare systems. He said it specifically covers those who don’t have access to workplace healthcare coverage and requires employers to continue offering health plans for the first five years after enactment.
A release from the Hispanic Business Roundtable pointed out that recent studies have shown that Latinos lack access to basic health insurance coverage. The group noted that statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau showed that 34.2% of Hispanics were uninsured, compared to 12% of non-Hispanic whites. Also, 38% of Hispanics working in small- to medium-sized companies have health insurance, compared to 63% of non-Hispanic whites.
Although Latinos are the fastest-growing group of Americans, they’re heavily concentrated in service sectors of the economy and small businesses that aren’t able or willing to offer them health coverage. Individual coverage is available but often is more expensive than traditional group plans.
The federal bill also is intended to encourage the development of state safety nets, high-risk insurance pools and what is called individual membership association insurance, where churches or community-based groups could get together to buy coverage.
Tenet Names Garden Grove Executive
Maxine Cooper is the new chief executive of Garden Grove Hospital and Medical Center. With 167 beds, Garden Grove Hospital is among 10 Orange County facilities owned by Santa Barbara-based Tenet Healthcare Corp.
Cooper, a Business Journal Women in Business award winner, was chief executive of two other Tenet facilities, Chapman Medical Center in Orange and Placentia Linda Hospital in Placentia, prior to taking the Garden Grove job. During her time at those facilities, Cooper was responsible for opening or expanding several specialty services, including an eye center, pain management clinic and a bariatric program.
She holds a bachelor’s in business administration from the University of the Redwoods and a master’s in business administration from Pepperdine University, Malibu.
CHOC in Asthma Study
Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Orange, is among several agencies and individuals taking part in an eight-month study aimed at identifying children with asthma. Dr. Stanley Galant, a physician at CHOC and professor at University of California, Irvine College of Medicine, is leading the study.
The study is set to involve roughly 150 randomly selected schoolchildren who will complete questionnaires and receive asthma examinations given by volunteer allergists. The initial study is being conducted at CHOC’s clinic at the Santa Ana Boys and Girls Club.
Following that, Dr. Craig Jones, director of the allergy and asthma program at USC-Los Angeles County Medical Center, will analyze data and health exam results to determine the measurement tool’s validity. If that happens, the questionnaires will be used to identify asthmatic children for further evaluation, education and treatment.
Bits and Pieces:
Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, reached a settlement with Disability Rights Advocates to improve healthcare delivery and accessibility for the plan’s members who have disabilities. Kaiser has around 310,000 HMO enrollees in OC Cardiac Science Inc., Irvine, and Inovise Medical, Newburg, Ore., formed a technology partnership. The companies are working to develop cardiac monitoring projects, and Cardiac Science will invest $1 million into Inovise OC either has met or is approaching 10 of 20 health measurement objectives set for Healthy People 2010, a national community index, according to a report from the California Department of Health Services, Sacramento HealthCare Foundation for Orange County, Santa Ana, gave out $38,000 in grants to four organizations for various outreach and education services The Orange County Board of Supervisors received an automated external defibrillator from the Women’s Council of the American Heart Association. The donation launched a program that teaches the public to be bystander rescuers in cardiac arrest cases Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Newport Beach, launched a sleep disorders section on its Web site The Southern California Organ Procurement Center, which has an Orange County office, changed its name to OneLegacy. Separately, the center released statistics showing that 49 OC residents were involved in organ donations last year, compared with 41 in 1999.
