Healthcare Roundup: Aetna Layoffs, Lakeside Absorbed, ASCs Rake in Profits, Retail Clinics Forecast to Grow, and More

(MoneyWatch)  Big Calif. Group Rescued From Bankruptcy - Lakeside Healthcare, a Burbank, CA-based medical group that includes more than 1,800 staff and contract physicians, has been acquired by Heritage Provider Network of Northridge, CA. Lakeside, which has long taken financial risk from HMOs, was headed for bankruptcy when it was acquired. Its financial troubles began this year when its medical expenses exceeded its revenues-a problem that has been attributed to the recession. With the addition of Lakeside's 200,000 patients, Heritage will now deliver care to 600,000 people. [Source: Los Angeles Times]

Aetna Lays Off Employees - Another recession casualty are the 625 Aetna employees who just received their pink slips, with an equal number to follow early next year. Aetna, which grew its work force by 5,700 from 2007 to 2008, is responding to the recent shrinkage in its membership, which is expected to fall from 19 million a few months ago to 18.7 million by the end of 2009. In the third quarter, however, Aetna's net income jumped nearly 65 percent to $301.5 million from $183 million for the prior year period, while its revenues grew 8 percent to $7.7 billion. [Sources: Hartford Courant, Fierce HealthFinance]

ASCs Seem Recession-Proof - Pennsylvania ambulatory surgery centers (ASCs) have not been affected by the economic downturn. According to figures from the Pennsylvania Health Care Cost Containment Council, the state's ASCs increased their margins from 24 percent in fiscal 2007 to 26 percent in fiscal 2008, which ended in May 2009. (By contrast, the state's hospitals had an average margin of 4 percent in 2008.) The number of ASCs in Pennsylvania grew by 17 during fiscal 2008, to a total of 261-four times more than a decade ago. [Source: Philadelphia Inquirer]

Evidence-Based Medicine Loses a Round - The recommendation of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force that average-risk women not get mammograms to detect breast cancer until age 50 will not affect insurance coverage of those tests for younger women. According to America's Health Insurance Plans, "insurance plans have not proposed changing their coverage." The government also backed away from the recommendation of its own advisory panel, fearing that the fallout could harm prospects for healthcare reform. But many clinics have stopped offering mammograms because of low reimbursement and fear of malpractice suits if any of the images are read incorrectly. [Source: Kaiser Health News]

Retail Clinics Predicted to Grow - The development of retail clinics has not been as rapid as some analysts have predicted. In fact, RediClinic and Minute Clinic have both contracted, and a convenience clinic chain associated with Wal Mart shut down all of its locations last year. But a new report forecasts that that picture could change. According to the Deloitte Center for Healthcare Solutions, retail clinics will grow 10 percent from 2010 to 2012, and growth will top 30 percent annually in 2013 and 2014. Among the factors in the sector's rebound, Deloitte says, will be healthcare reform, which will raise the demand for primary-care services, and an expansion of the services that retail clinics offer. [Sources: Deloitte, Fierce Healthcare]