Health

Independence Blue Cross (IBC) announced the creation of the Independence Blue Cross Foundation, which is committed to transforming health care through innovation in the Philadelphia region. With an initial commitment of $10 million to fund the work of the foundation, the new nonprofit will focus on the region's health care challenges.

The foundation targets three areas: caring for our community's most vulnerable, leading innovative approaches to health care, and developing the health care workforce of the future with an intense focus on nursing education.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury last week awarded IFF, the nonprofit lender and real estate consultant, a grant of $3 million to fund a pipeline of retail projects to improve access to healthy foods in low-income neighborhoods classified as “food deserts.” The award is part of the Healthy Foods Financing Initiative proposed by the Obama Administration and represents the first coordinated, federal effort to increase the availability of nutritious foods in underserved areas.

Donors to Canada’s health care institutions increased contributions by $80 million last year, but the much needed financial booster shot remained far below amounts raised before the recession hit. While charitable cash and pledges in FY2010 totaled $1.204 billion, 7.1 percent more than in FY2009, they were $133 million less than the total of funds raised in FY2007, according to the FY2010 AHP Report on Giving-Canada by the Association for Healthcare Philanthropy.

Mayo Clinic announced that longtime Mayo benefactors Robert and Patricia Kern have given $20 million to help launch its Center for the Science of Health Care Delivery. The goal of the center is to create, evaluate and implement approaches to deliver high-value care.

By analyzing data, conducting research and engineering new care delivery systems, the center will identify the most efficient best practices in the diagnosis, treatment and care of patients.

The Foundation for Health Coverage Education (FHCE) announced that it has been awarded two grants totaling $60,000 from the Health Coverage Foundation. The grants will aid in updating FHCE’s U.S. Uninsured Help Line 800-234-1317 and website, www.CoverageForAll.org, and strengthen continued media efforts to educate uninsured Americans about their health coverage options. They will also enhance a collaborative outreach effort with the American Lung Association to assist uninsured lung disease sufferers with navigating the complex health coverage system.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Northwest Health Foundation announced 11 new grants as part of Partners Investing in Nursing’s Future (PIN).

The grant recipients are Arkansas Community Foundation, Community Foundation for the Land of Lincoln, Con Alma Health Foundation, Daisy Marquis Jones Foundation, Jonas Center for Nursing Excellence at the Jewish Communal Fund, Massachusetts Senior Care Foundation, Richmond Memorial Health Foundation, Rogosin Institute/Dreyfus Health Foundation, Faye McBeath Foundation, Tufts Health Plan Foundation and Wyoming Community Foundation.

Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center announced Monday that it has established a Center for Personalized Cancer Medicine with a $30 million gift from the Richmond, Va.-based Commonwealth Foundation for Cancer Research.

The money will further Hopkins' research into technologies that can pinpoint genetic characteristics of a patient's cancer so therapies can be tailor-made.

The aim is to avoid hit-and-miss and one-size-fits-all approaches for the annual 1.5 million Americans diagnosed with cancer, to use the right drugs for treatment, and even prevent some cancers.

A dwindling number of patients, combined with oncoming Medicare and Medicaid cuts, are making more likely the prospect of nonprofit hospitals being issued credit rating downgrades, according to a report released Wednesday.

Hospital revenues grew at an average rate of only 4 percent in 2010, a 20-year low, according to the rating agency Moody’s, which issued the report. Moreover, the rate of revenue growth is expected to keep dropping. Federal cuts in Medicare, and state efforts to save money in Medicaid spending, will hurt hospitals’ bottom line.

More than $90 million in charitable assets — some donations dating back decades — will be transferred to the Children's Hospital of Michigan Foundation after receiving the appropriate approvals, the children's foundation said Wednesday.

The assets, previously controlled by the Detroit Medical Center, required Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette and DMC Legacy Board approval for transfer as part of the Dec. 31, 2010, sale of the nonprofit DMC to for-profit Vanguard Health Systems Inc.

Sanford Weill, the former Citigroup chairman, and his wife, Joan, have pledged $10-million to the Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, Israel, to expand its facilities for treating children with cancer and Palestinian patients, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports.

Also, a Saudi oil executive has donated $10-million to the Mayo Clinic to support reconstructive surgery for victims of war, trauma, and illness, the Minneapolis Star Tribune writes.