Anyone who’s hustled to meet the April 15 tax deadline knows the federal government wields the tax code like a kindergarten teacher hands out smiley stickers and timeouts. In healthcare, it tries to pry good behavior from payers whose impulses...
James Mongan is a bridesmaid no more. After the president and chief executive officer of Partners HealthCare System, Boston, finished second in 2005 and 2007, readers of Modern Healthcare and sister publication Modern Physician voted...
Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers should increase payments to geriatric specialists as a means to better train and retain providers for the coming wave of aging baby boomers, the Institute of Medicine said in a report, to be released this...
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) informed physician lobbyists in a meeting that he would push for legislation to halt Medicare payment cuts for 18 months. “Chairman Baucus intends to pursue an 18-month fix this spring,” said a...
Anyone who’s hustled to meet the April 15 tax deadline knows the federal government wields the tax code like a kindergarten teacher hands out smiley stickers and timeouts. In healthcare, it tries to pry good behavior from payers whose impulses...
In an interesting turnabout, three organizations that have fought the physician-ownership model now find themselves in the same position they have placed their opponents: on the defensive.
A U.S. District Court judge’s decision to temporarily bar HHS from moving forward with a Medicare competitive-bidding demonstration project in San Diego could have a broad impact on the agency’s freedom to define and structure the bidding processes...
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission issued a series of bold new payment recommendations last week that lean on hospitals and physicians to improve their accountability for cost and quality of care.
Last week a House panel approved legislation that would effectively kill a number of White House directives that critics charge would cut state Medicaid funding by $50 billion and restrict access to care for millions of poor adults and children if...
Changes to Medicare’s reimbursement program aimed at improving quality and safety in hospitals aren’t likely to make a big dent in federal spending on healthcare, some policy experts say.
A final CMS rule updating Medicare conditions for coverage in dialysis centers was well-received last week from a group representing more than 10 leading renal-care companies in the U.S.
What may have been two milestones in the history of clinical computing were passed late last month at SSM St. Joseph Hospital West in Lake St. Louis, Mo.
James Mongan is a bridesmaid no more. After the president and chief executive officer of Partners HealthCare System, Boston, finished second in 2005 and 2007, readers of Modern Healthcare and sister publication Modern Physician voted...
To compile the fourth annual ranking of the 50 Most Powerful Physician Executives in Healthcare, Modern Healthcare and sister publication Modern Physician announced the recognition program on Oct. 29, 2007, and Nov. 5, 2007,...
Massachusetts’ universal coverage program has been cited as a model for national reform, and with good reason. It is a beta test of the individual and employer mandates favored by Hillary Rodham Clinton and the new form of the public-private...
With the recent announcement that Zagat Survey and WellPoint have partnered to assess patient satisfaction with their physicians, consumers will be able to research doctors in much the same way they investigate local restaurants.
As a cardiologist and onetime board chairman of the Heart Hospital of Milwaukee, the only failed heart hospital in the U.S., I find it ironic that patient satisfaction is getting the attention it deserves (“Comparative satisfaction,” March 31, p.
There was a time not so long ago when customer service was at the core of business success. Unfortunately, across all business sectors today, most organizations and the people who work for them appear to have forgotten the concept or have never...
Gary Looper, 60, resigned as CEO of Northwest Health System, Springdale, Ark., in order to move closer to family in Texas, according to the system. Dan McKay, a division vice president for system owner Community Health Systems,...
Just in case anyone was worried that healthcare reform was taking a back seat to the economy and Iraq, rest assured that Elizabeth Edwards is checking under the hood.
