Daunted by inadequate reimbursements, impending state-mandated seismic renovations, and out-of-control losses, Adventist Health announced a deal last fall to sell 102-year-old Paradise Valley Hospital in National City, Calif.
It was just one measly little hospital transaction—one Nashville businessman contacting a local lawyer to complete a purchase agreement for a small hospital that a group of doctors wanted to buy in 1968.
George Isham was visiting last year at one of the ophthalmology practices that contracts with HealthPartners, the Minnesota integrated health system where he is the chief health officer and plan medical director. Isham was gratified, though perhaps...
Joint Commission inspectors made a surprise inspection “for cause” of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington last week in an effort to scrutinize the hospital’s discharge practices, leadership and environment of care that led to patients...
Daunted by inadequate reimbursements, impending state-mandated seismic renovations, and out-of-control losses, Adventist Health announced a deal last fall to sell 102-year-old Paradise Valley Hospital in National City, Calif.
Controversy over hospital ownership reared its head in other ways last week. In a situation that must feel like deja vu for Sens. Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley, a recent inquiry into patient death in Texas has led the CMS to send an imminent...
A report on the initial findings of the Internal Revenue Service’s probe of tax-exempt organization executive compensation highlighted troubling gaps in disclosure of perks and pay.
Whatever direction Congress takes on revamping Medicare’s physician payment system this year, the solution is unlikely to be cheap, and it won’t be implemented overnight.
HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt debuted a new quality-improvement plan that would build and establish local quality-improvement collaboratives with an eye toward a national link-up in a few years.
While the use of high-tech gadgetry such as electronic health records, digital X-ray imaging and computerized physician order-entry systems grew among community hospitals in 2006, so too did the gap between the haves and the have-nots.
Tenet Healthcare Corp. continues to leave investors wondering if “someday” will ever come. When the Dallas-based company announced its $900 million settlement with the federal government last year (July 3/10, 2006, p. 8), Tenet told investors that...
Over the years, mergers and buyouts have played a central role in WellPoint’s rapid rise to the top of the health insurance industry food chain. And if its choice of a new chief executive officer is any indication, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield...
Three Maine health systems that give care to an estimated 65% of the state’s population unveiled an agreement to collectively purchase supplies, coordinate technology investment and jointly target public health efforts, officials said.
The multisystem cooperation agreement unveiled in Maine (See story, p. 18) came amid a flurry of deal-related news. St. Vincent Health System, Erie, Pa., announced plans to affiliate with Catholic Healthcare Partners, Cincinnati.
The Healthcare Information Management and Systems Society made a bet on New Orleans being recovered enough from Hurricane Katrina to handle its massive, annual healthcare information technology convention this year.
A hospital chief information officer’s acceptance of a position on a company’s healthcare advisory council does not necessarily pose a conflict of interest, mainly because the CIO does not have a fiduciary duty to the hospital where he is an...
Late last year in the waning days of the Republican-controlled Congress, the Congressional Budget Office completed an analysis that some experts believe could bring the not-for-profit hospital industry to its knees if anyone bothers to pay attention...
George Isham was visiting last year at one of the ophthalmology practices that contracts with HealthPartners, the Minnesota integrated health system where he is the chief health officer and plan medical director. Isham was gratified, though perhaps...
It was just one measly little hospital transaction—one Nashville businessman contacting a local lawyer to complete a purchase agreement for a small hospital that a group of doctors wanted to buy in 1968.
This year one out of every six Americans will have no health coverage. For these 46.6 million people, being uninsured is a potential daily tragedy that can mean the difference between good healthcare at the right time or dire illness.
I was disappointed in David Burda’s editorial on the ethical standards of four former CMS administrators (“I see on your resume you ran CMS, gulp,” Feb. 19, p. 21). These four very different individuals all did an excellent job running what may be...
Having served in the military, I get emotional when I hear about the death of a soldier. We are in one of those times when every day there is a feature story in the media about someone killed in the line of duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. Each death is...
Philip Fasano, 48, has been named senior vice president and CIO of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, replacing Bruce Turkstra, who has been serving as interim CIO since J. Clifford Dodd resigned from that post on...
Centura Health, a 12-hospital, Englewood, Colo.-based system, has named Terry Forde, 35, as CEO of its Parker (Colo.) Adventist Hospital. He took over that post on March 1. He replaced Ken Bacon, 41, who was appointed CEO of Centura’s...
A consumer-advocacy group has launched a national campaign to try to reduce conflicts of interest between doctors and the pharmaceutical companies that ply their physician-customers with everything from boxfuls of drug samples to free...
About 54% of physicians support a ban on the collection of personal drug-prescribing information, saying tougher restrictions should apply to their privacy with patients, according to a new poll. Despite those concerns, only about 4% of doctors have...
The latest splash from two Minnesota medical pioneers, the Mayo Clinic and Medtronic, isn’t a breakthrough cure or cutting-edge device. Instead, the pair separately launched high-profile branding efforts that have landed the Mayo Clinic on tiny cell...
