Expectations are high in the healthcare industry that President-elect Barack Obama will do what few Democratic presidents have done before: deliver on comprehensive healthcare reform to fix a broken system.
Major employers are struggling to hold down healthcare expenditures amid rising medical costs, and are just starting to flex their purchasing power to make fundamental changes to keep providing workers with benefits in years to come, according to...
U.S. community hospitals enjoyed record profits in 2007, posting $43 billion more in revenue than expenses and creating the largest single-year jump in profit margins in at least 15 years, according to figures released by the American Hospital...
U.S. community hospitals face worsening financial pressures as government reimbursement shortfalls continue to increase and bad-debt rates climb higher, two analyses released by the American Hospital Association show. The amount of underpayment by...
The CMS issued a final rule that would limit the types of outpatient hospital services covered by Medicaid. The rule was originally proposed along with six others as a means to help tighten areas of the Medicaid program that are ripe for abusive...
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed accelerating hospital construction to help jump-start the state economy as part of a broad stimulus, taxation and cost-cutting plan. The governor proposes streamlining the permit-and-review process for...
Expectations are high in the healthcare industry that President-elect Barack Obama will do what few Democratic presidents have done before: deliver on comprehensive healthcare reform to fix a broken system.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), an iconic figure of past reform battles on Capitol Hill, is looking to push healthcare high on Congress’ agenda by assembling a group of stakeholders to quickly produce major healthcare legislation early in...
As the nation elected Barack Obama president, voters in various states used their ballots to spread some wealth for hospital construction and children’s health insurance in spite of the bleak economic outlook. They also supported measures that...
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, prompted by interest from the health industry, pushed ahead with the creation of patient-safety organizations despite the lack of a final rule from HHS governing how those groups will collect and...
Advocates for the home-care industry say they were stunned by Medicare’s new regulation for providing home oxygen therapy to seniors that they contend will “adversely impact” patients.
Hospital executives anxious about complying with Medicare’s Recovery Audit Contractor program may have breathed a temporary sigh of relief last week in hearing that the audit contracts had been suspended because of a protest action issued by two...
Like HCA before it, Tenet Healthcare Corp. has formed a subsidiary to sell services to other hospitals. In light of the effects of the credit crunch and the economic slowdown that they reported last week, perhaps it’s no surprise that the for-profit...
West Penn Allegheny Health System ended a rocky fiscal year in June with operating losses hugely magnified by accounting errors and an “ambitious, but realistic” $66 million turnaround plan.
Despite the damage Hurricanes Gustav and Ike caused two months ago, the storms resulted in an unexpected gain for Louisiana, as they accounted for nearly half of a current $100 million surplus in the state’s Medicaid program.
Come next year, two new California healthcare privacy laws will take effect, establishing an office of the state health department as privacy enforcement traffic controller while closing a loophole in existing law that allowed snooping into...
Major employers are struggling to hold down healthcare expenditures amid rising medical costs, and are just starting to flex their purchasing power to make fundamental changes to keep providing workers with benefits in years to come, according to...
This is the first year Modern Healthcare has conducted a survey of major employers seeking information on their healthcare expenditures. We wanted to know how employers across industries are managing rising healthcare costs and flexing their...
With the economy in peril and a new president to take office in January, we face numerous uncertainties in the future. But we can predict one trend with confidence: We are entering a new era of consumerism in healthcare.
On its face, it is strange that U.S. employers provide healthcare coverage for their workers. Shouldn’t a tire manufacturer concentrate on making tires, not healthcare decisions?
If the answer is transparency, the germane and honest question is “for whom?” The revised Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America code (along with recent announcements by Eli Lilly and Co., Merck & Co. and others that they will make...
It was several years ago but I’ll always remember a discussion I had with a seasoned, high-profile healthcare executive. In my opinion, he was one of those who personified the definition of a leader—one whose reputation was above reproach.
South Florida is home to the nation’s highest concentration of crooks who rip off the government with fraudulent claims for durable medical equipment and supplies, and the government has responded with aggressive and successful efforts to root them...
Election season may be over, but it seems politicians passed along cyberspace-fundraising fever to at least one hospital before the final votes were tallied.
Look out, Florida Hospital. You just got served. Big time. In the apparently competitive world of administering the most flu shots in a single day, the University of Minnesota now reigns supreme, according to Guinness World Records.
“They may not eat. They may not be able to pay their rent. Maybe they’re not going to be able to pay their utilities. A hundred dollars is very significant coming out of their monthly incomes.”
