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Today's Globe: swine flu prep at work, home health care, NH brain injury unit, public option

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Elizabeth Cooney October 15, 2009 06:15 AM

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Local employers are gearing up for the H1N1 influenza virus, which the Boston Public Health Commission is cautioning could infect 30 percent of the population this fall and winter.

A $332 million state program that oversees home health care services for about 18,000 elderly and disabled residents is vulnerable to fraud and has employed personal care attendants who have committed felonies, including manslaughter, assault, and threatening to commit murder, according to a report released yesterday by the Office of the State Auditor.

As the state moves ahead with layoffs, the closing of a New Hampshire Hospital unit for brain injury patients means not only lost jobs for workers, but new homes for some patients.

As the White House and congressional leaders turned in earnest yesterday to working out big differences in the five health bills, perhaps no issue loomed as a greater obstacle than whether to establish a government-run competitor to the insurance industry.

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About white coat notes

White Coat Notes covers the latest from the health care industry, hospitals, doctors offices, labs, insurers, and the corridors of government. Chelsea Conaboy previously covered health care for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Write her at cconaboy@boston.com. Follow her on Twitter: @cconaboy.

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