Politicians and policymakers in more than two dozen states are busy exploring ways to broaden healthcare coverage for the uninsured. But so far nothing else comes close to the scope—or the cost—of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bold...
Rural hospital executives are all too familiar with the many challenges that result from geographic isolation. But now experts say these leaders should also be aware of isolation within their own facilities—and be actively engaged in their...
The quality of U.S. healthcare could be much better despite recent improvements, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Nevertheless, providers have made improvements at a steady rate in recent years on 42 key performance...
Politicians and policymakers in more than two dozen states are busy exploring ways to broaden healthcare coverage for the uninsured. But so far nothing else comes close to the scope—or the cost—of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bold...
Two months ago, America’s Health Insurance Plans laid out an ambitious initiative it said would provide affordable health insurance to every American within the next decade. It featured provisions to expand and improve Medicaid, create tax credits...
No one’s calling it “Mission Impossible” yet. But when board members for two-campus Methodist Hospitals decided to bring in an outsider to develop and implement a turnaround plan for the financially troubled system based in Gary, Ind., they knew it...
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s proposal last week to reduce indirect medical-education payments by a full percentage point in 2008 has the potential to undermine payments to teaching hospitals, the industry fears.
Last week’s release of U.S. healthcare spending data may hurt hospitals’ arguments that they’re suffering from a lack of funding. The data show hospitals’ spending climbed by a healthy 7.9% in 2005, compared with growth of 7% in spending on...
The $1.8 billion agreement by United Surgical Partners International to sell itself to a private equity firm last week adds to an already active mergers and acquisitions market.
Eastman Kodak Co. cut loose its health group last week, agreeing to sell one of the most prominent names in X-ray technologies to Onex Healthcare Holdings, a subsidiary of Onex Corp. in Toronto, for approximately $2.55 billion.
About 47% of the nation’s estimated 5,000 ambulatory surgery centers were owned entirely by physicians in 2006—down about 1 percentage point from 2004, according to a survey by the American Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers.
Sutter Health’s decision to pull out of the cutthroat hospital market in California’s Sonoma County has raised the hackles of local nurses, who vowed to challenge the controversial transaction “every step of the way.”
For more than a decade, the disease-management industry’s approach to evaluating and reporting outcomes has been about as comprehensible as baseball legend Casey Stengel famously directing a group of rookie players to “line up alphabetically...
Rural hospital executives are all too familiar with the many challenges that result from geographic isolation. But now experts say these leaders should also be aware of isolation within their own facilities—and be actively engaged in their...
Health cost inflation moderated in 2005, but this is no time to get out the party hats. Yes, as my late grandma used to say, it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. But as I used to reply to her, so are a lot of unpleasant...
The most vexing issue surrounding the creation of a national electronic healthcare network is the privacy, confidentiality and security of personal health information.
As a 30-year participant in and close observer of the evolution of quality improvement in our field, it was surprising to read David Burda’s editorial, in which he made the strained analogy between Donald Berwick/Newt Gingrich and Otter and Bluto...
History is a great teacher, but too few people these days spend much energy pondering the past. The current generation of young people seems particularly disinterested in anything that happened longer ago than last year. They seem to adopt the...
Jameson Health System, New Castle, Pa., named Douglas Danko as its COO. Danko succeeds Donald Melonio, who retired after 35 years with the hospital. Danko has been at Jameson for 31 years, most recently as vice president of...
