President Bush’s plan to get fed-eral entitlement spending under control by carving into provider payments was denounced by executives representing hospitals and other providers last week.
In what seems to be a softening of its previous stance, the Bush administration in its just-released budget proposal last week offered to funnel more money into the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
LifePoint Hospitals, Brentwood, Tenn., said volume losses of 15% in a half-dozen markets fueled a 6% decline in admissions for the fourth quarter of 2007 that helped sink its profits by 20%. Bad-debt expense, as a percentage of net revenue, rose by...
President Bush’s plan to get fed-eral entitlement spending under control by carving into provider payments was denounced by executives representing hospitals and other providers last week.
HCA has sliced $1.1 billion off the debt it took on in its $33 billion leveraged buyout. But another kind of debt—the debt that uninsured patients rack up when they can’t afford to pay their bills—continued to shoot up for HCA in the first full year...
In what seems to be a softening of its previous stance, the Bush administration in its just-released budget proposal last week offered to funnel more money into the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Medicare’s quality improvement organizations will more closely scrutinize specific hospitals’ surgical prowess as they begin their ninth contract under the gun from the CMS to prove their worth as quality inspectors.
Democratic voters kept healthcare near the top of their concerns when voting last week on Super Tuesday, with Sen. Hillary Clinton coming out the apparent winner on that issue, national exit poll data show.
The federal government’s notoriously glacial pace for reimbursing cash-strapped healthcare providers apparently will be on trial along with five former executives of the defunct National Century Financial Enterprises, judging by opening...
Hospitals do not do enough to prepare for top-level vacancies, train and track future leaders or adopt measures to promote cultural diversity, results of a survey of healthcare executives show.
Rural healthcare officials like those at Minnesota’s Office of Rural Health and Primary Care are finding relief for improving critical-access care by way of revised guidance from the CMS.
One year after the Healthcare Research & Development Institute was disbanded under an antitrust settlement agreement with Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, it has morphed into a much smaller, more intimate organization called the...
The Baylor Health Care System in Dallas was named the recipient of the National Quality Forum’s 2008 National Quality Healthcare Award. The 15th annual award recognizes a healthcare organization that successfully uses performance measures to drive...
States might be ahead of the curve when it comes to medical-error reporting systems, but consumers still don’t seem enthusiastic about using the information provided to make healthcare choices.
Some 68 nominations were received for this year’s competition, co-sponsored by executive search firm Witt/Kieffer. Nominations were accepted from early October through early December 2007. Two winners were chosen in each category—healthcare...
After a stunning defeat in California, a major political movement may have stalled. And I am not talking about Mitt Romney. Instead, a bold effort by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some Democrats to add coverage for millions of uninsured residents...
Regardless of where you sit in the healthcare industry—provider, health plan, pharmacy, pharmacy benefit manager, manufacturer, employer or consumer—the advent of health information technology is changing the way the industry does business. Indeed,...
It is time for Congress to stop the gravy train and eliminate private fee-for-service plans in Medicare (“Plea to end fee-for service plans,” Feb. 4, p. 8). We will limit the looming Medicare fiscal disaster in 2020 only if every beneficiary is back...
A recent news story about intensive-care units is a lesson in just how hard it is going to be to reinvent the U.S. healthcare system. Even for someone who is used to witnessing the difficulty with which providers struggle to improve care, the story...
Richard Henley, president and CEO of Pocono Health System and Pocono Medical Center, East Stroudsburg, Pa., resigned last month “to pursue other opportunities.” Henley, 51, a “Star Student” in the Modern Healthcare Up & Comers Yearbook, class of...
