California hospitals, union to advocate jointly on Medicaid

The California Hospital Association and several of its member hospitals inked an agreement with SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West to advocate jointly on reforming the state's Medicaid program, and plan to fund the effort with $100 million. The unusual partnership includes a code of conduct in which the signers agreed to "engage in positive, factual communications that are designed to build and maintain a trust-based relationship." C. Duane Dauner, president and CEO of the CHA, said, "We are looking forward to not only working with each other, but working with all of the other stakeholders in health care."

More med students matched to primary care residencies

The number of primary care doctors in the pipeline continues to grow. Medical students matched to the postgraduate Year 1 primary care residencies of family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics rose by 2.6 percent to 12,069, according to the final Match Day report for 2014 from the National Resident Matching Program. The 307 matches in those categories made up more than half of the increase of 540 matches in total. Overall matches reached a record 26,678. Internal medicine matches grew the most of the three, rising by 3.6 percent, or 223, to 6,465. Family medicine matches grew by 2.2 percent, or 63, to 2,977, and pediatric matches grew by 0.8 percent, or 21, to 2,627.

Almost half of nurses down on ACA

Preliminary survey results indicate that close to half of nurses think the Affordable Care Act will have a negative effect on the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of patient care. Forty-seven percent of nurses surveyed by Harris Poll on behalf of CareerBuilder said the ACA will have a negative effect, and 31 percent said it will have a positive effect. Of the 886 respondents, 23 percent said it would have no effect. Respondents were more bullish on technology, with 57 percent saying that tech tools help them do their jobs more effectively, though 46 percent said technology is making health care more depersonalized.