Free Republic

If you rely on health insurance provided by companies aligned with the Affordable Care Act marketplace in Pennsylvania, prepare yourself for sticker shock when it’s time to pay those premiums in the fall. Valley residents enrolled in the ACA marketplace can choose from programs offered by Capital Advantage, Geisinger, Highmark, UPMC Health Options, Geisinger Health Plan, Geisinger Quality Options, and Keystone Health Plan Central. All are proposing significant rate increases for monthly premiums in 2017.

The Jesuit tapped by Pope Francis to serve as the Vatican’s top clergy sex abuse prosecutor failed to remove an abusive priest from ministry even after learning about that priest’s long record, The Boston Globe reported today. As the second-highest official with the Chicago Jesuits in the 1990s, the Rev. Robert J. Geisinger, SJ, was privy to documents chronicling the abuse of Rev. Donald J. McGuire, SJ, whom the Globe describes as “a globe-trotting priest with many influential supporters, including Mother Teresa of Calcutta.” A review of Church records by the Globe’s Michael Rezendes shows that Geisinger had knowledge of...

Health care provider announces that tobacco users will not get jobs. Smokers need not apply. That’s the message Geisinger Health System is sending to future job applicants. Starting Feb. 1, Geisinger will no longer hire applicants who use tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars and chewing or smokeless tobacco, the health system announced on Wednesday. “Geisinger is joining dozens of hospitals and medical organizations across the country that are encouraging healthier living, decreasing absenteeism and reducing health care costs by adopting strict policies that make smoking a reason to turn away job applicants,” Richard Merkle, chief human resources officer, said in...

In fact, Geisinger, touted by Obama as a health system that offers "high-quality care at costs below average," has gotten so popular that it started offering group tours. It expects more than 70 visitors from insurance companies and health systems this week. "We were consuming ourselves with entertaining," said Howard Grant, a former Temple University Health System chief medical officer who became Geisinger's chief medical officer in 2008. "People from all reaches of the country are trying to understand how what we do translates to their world." What visitors find in the wooded hills of Danville, population 4,450, is a...

DANVILLE (PA)— A crowd of concerned citizens and union members showed up at Geisinger's doorstep Monday to present its CEO with letters and petitions from more than 2,000 Wilkes-Barre community members, according to a Pennsylvania Health Care Union spokeswoman. The petitions came as part of a campaign, in anticipation of Geisinger's takeover of Mercy Hospital, to lobby the health care giant to keep its employees' current contracts and maintain its level of care. With its current contract, Mercy Hospital provides benefits for part-time workers. That may change, however, when Geisinger assumes control of the hospital. "The union is posturing to...

NEWPORT - A former Millerstown police chief was arrested at the Canadian border last night about 10 hours after he shot and killed his estranged wife at her job, according to police in Northumberland County. Richard C. Curran, 31, of Shamokin, was arrested about 9 p.m. when he failed to declare firearms that were inside his vehicle at a Niagara Falls border crossing, Coal Twp. police said. Around 11 a.m. yesterday, Curran confronted his estranged wife at her job at Shamokin Area Community Hospital, police said. He is accused of shooting Tina Curran, 31, of Mount Carmel, several times and...

DANVILLE, Pa. - A woman is suing a doctor who operated on her, accusing him of leaving a 4-inch metal instrument in her uterus. The lawsuit filed in Montour County Court says Dr. Samuel Owusu operated on Lori Klinger, now 35, in November 2002. Klinger said she was in severe pain when she returned home and called her doctor. According to the lawsuit, Owusu told Klinger her pain was normal and told her to take pain medication. Two days later, she went to the bathroom, and the instrument emerged from her vagina, the lawsuit said. Klinger said the instrument was...