When Elmer “Buzz” Ours travels the roughly 100 miles from his rural West Virginia home to the nearest full-service veterans’ hospital for counseling services, the smell of diesel fumes and asphalt takes him back to Vietnam.
This special report is based on a roundtable discussion with four rural healthcare executives held Oct. 15 at Modern Healthcare’s offices in Chicago. The executives are:
Medicare will pay ambulatory surgery centers at 65% of the hospital outpatient department rate—with some exceptions—under a final rule issued by the CMS. The move follows through on its original plan unveiled in July (July 23, p. 6). While some...
When Elmer “Buzz” Ours travels the roughly 100 miles from his rural West Virginia home to the nearest full-service veterans’ hospital for counseling services, the smell of diesel fumes and asphalt takes him back to Vietnam.
As industry leaders wrangle over ways to improve healthcare access for former service members in rural areas, they must also contend with the growing number of uninsured veterans. In December, the American Journal of Public Health will...
A Senate roundtable convened last week by influential Sen. Chuck Grassley may have provided hospital representatives with a soapbox for their opinions on the hot-button issue of community benefit, but may have done little to steer the senator away...
A new HHS plan to provide bonus payments to 1,200 physicians in a dozen communities for quality reporting using electronic health records received mixed reviews from industry executives, despite HHS’ claim it will be “the largest step yet” toward...
An agreement over physician-ranking programs between Cigna Corp. and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo could lead to similar agreements involving other insurers and serve as a framework nationally.
Federal law enforcement agencies have a major advantage when they pursue cases against publicly traded for-profit hospital chains—the unrelenting scrutiny of investors.
Last month’s morning raid by federal agents on the Tampa, Fla.-headquarters of WellCare Health Plans embroiled at least one prominent healthcare scholar into the mysterious fray: Harvard Business School professor and healthcare researcher Regina...
Now that the policy issues surrounding the major change in the inpatient prospective payment system that went into effect Oct. 1 are mostly settled, there is a not-so-small matter of implementation in hospital billing departments.
Hospital bankruptcy stories are always poignant, peopled with doctors, nurses, patients and bondholders left in the lurch. But bankruptcies and the ensuing reorganizations usually include a glimmer of hope for rebirth, reformation or redemption. In...
This special report is based on a roundtable discussion with four rural healthcare executives held Oct. 15 at Modern Healthcare’s offices in Chicago. The executives are:
America lacks the planning gene. As individuals, we don’t think about the future; the personal savings rate as a percentage of disposable income has steadily declined from less than 8% in the early 1990s to minus 1% last year. In societal terms, we...
Whatever happened to the old “meet and greet”? I used to hear that phrase more often than I do of late. At business and social gatherings, it is still alive as what people call networking these days. In terms of customer service, it seems to be a...
Healthcare executives don’t like getting e-mails from the Federal Trade Commission (or any branch of the government) that include the word “complaint,” but one circulating recently is bogus. Or is it?
