Employee Benefit Costs Rise 6.3% in N.Y.

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

Large companies in New York are paying 6.3% more for employee health benefits than they did last year, shelling out an average of $8,730 for each employee this year.

The increase is higher than the nationwide rise in employee health benefit costs, 5.1%, which represents an average of $8,229 in benefit costs for each employee, according to a survey released yesterday by the consulting firm, Mercer.

According to the survey, health benefit costs are expected to increase another 7% in New York and 5.9% nationwide in 2008.

In New York, 65% of employees are enrolled in preferred provider organizations, 19% in HMOs, 14% in point of service plans, 2% in traditional indemnity plans, and 3% in consumer-directed health plans, according to the Mercer survey.

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MOUNT SINAI RECRUITS TOP CANCER DOCTOR FROM NYU

Mount Sinai Medical Center has recruited a top cancer specialist, Dr. Steven Burakoff, to lead the hospital center’s new Cancer Institute.

Dr. Burakoff most recently served as the director of the New York University Cancer Institute and as the director of NYU’s Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine.

Prior to his tenure at NYU, Dr. Burakoff held leadership positions at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. At Mount Sinai, he will help develop the hospital’s cancer institute, and he will oversee the application of cancer research to patient care. The appointment will become effective on December 1.

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COALITION AIMS TO PROTECT PATIENT SAFETY A new coalition of consumer groups, called CURE-NY, will advocate for patients in the wake of news that the state health department waited nearly three years to tell patients that they may have been exposed to hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV by a Long Island physician.

“The real medical malpractice crisis is that the state hasn’t cracked down on dangerous doctors,” the director of the Center for Medical Consumers, Arthur Levin, said in a statement.

Last week, the state health department notified 630 patients who received injections from a Long Island physician that they may have been infected.

Yesterday, the health department posted a statement from Governor Spitzer on its Web site, promising an investigation into the matter.

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BILL AIMS TO BOOST ENROLLMENT IN PUBLIC HEALTH INSURANCE AMONG CHILDREN

Members of the City Council introduced a bill yesterday that would make applications for public health insurance available in schools and day care centers.

The bill, introduced by Council Member Joel Rivera, who chairs the Council’s health committee, aims to boost enrollment in Child Health Plus.

According to the Children’s Defense Fund-New York, there are some 415,000 uninsured children in New York, with about half of them living in New York City.

An estimated 250,000 uninsured children are eligible for insurance, but are not enrolled, according to health advocates.

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HEALTH DEPARTMENT REORGANIZES, CREATES OFFICE OF PUBLIC HEALTH

The state’s health commissioner, Dr. Richard Daines, has created a new Office of Public Health to bring together the state’s public health resources.

With an annual budget of nearly $2 billion, the new Office of Public Health will consist of seven divisions, including: the Office of Science; the AIDS Institute; the Center for Community Health; the Center for Environmental Health; Wadsworth Laboratories; the Office of Public Health Practice, and the Office of Health Emergency Preparedness.

“This phase strengthens and improves coordination among our public health programs and ensures incorporation of public health input and principles into all department programs,” Dr. Daines said in a statement.

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MEDICAL RESIDENTS TO REPORT ‘NEAR MISSES’

Nearly 5,000 medical residents in New York will begin reporting “near misses,” or events that nearly harmed a patient, under an agreement between the state Department of Health and the New York chapter of the American College of Physicians.

The three-year program, which residents will volunteer to take part in, is designed to collect data on medical errors in an effort to improve patient safety. Currently, serious injuries and deaths that occur in hospitals must be reported to the health department.

Physician groups not involved in the agreement praised the program. “We’re not looking to ascribe blame, we are looking to improve upon what we do and what our colleagues do,” the president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, Dr. Robert Goldberg, said.”

The reports won’t be accessible to the public, the state Department of Health said.

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WEILL CORNELL TO TREAT DIABETICS WITH SURGERY

New-York-Presbyterian Hospital/ Weill Cornell Medical Center has created a surgical program to treat patients with type 2 diabetes.

The gastrointestinal metabolic surgery service will be headed by Dr. Francesco Rubino, the hospital said.

While some patients have reported improvements in their diabetes following weight-loss surgery, treating diabetic patients with gastrointestinal operations is an emerging surgical field.

“The idea of providing a new, specialized program in metabolic surgery is part of a broader effort at the medical center to offer new treatment options for patients with diabetes and obesity,” Dr. Rubino said in a statement.

esolomont@nysun.com


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