Healthcare interest groups, lobbyists and politicos are pumping millions of dollars and an untold number of hours into an effort to keep healthcare a major part of the agenda at the upcoming Democratic and Republican nominating conventions.
New Jersey’s largest insurer, Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield, filed an application with the state’s attorney general and Banking and Insurance Department to convert from a not-for-profit to a for-profit corporation. The Newark-based insurer said...
Healthcare interest groups, lobbyists and politicos are pumping millions of dollars and an untold number of hours into an effort to keep healthcare a major part of the agenda at the upcoming Democratic and Republican nominating conventions.
Neither of the upcoming Democratic and Republican conventions could take place without donations from special interests, and both will benefit from many millions of dollars from healthcare.
Although John McCain and Barack Obama have not announced their running mates, both nominees have identified potential candidates with considerable healthcare experience.
A new lobbying rule might make some members of Congress wary of attending receptions and parties at this year’s presidential conventions, but it is not preventing patient and physician groups from hosting such events.
Second-year results of a Medicare physician group practice pay-for-performance demonstration project show it continues to save money and improve quality, but most of the participants have yet to reap any significant financial rewards for their...
On the surface, the CMS’ recent announcement that it will launch a pilot project for personal health records in two Western states seems like another example of promoting consumer-driven healthcare.
The Defense and Veterans Affairs departments have received recommendations from a pair of consultants saying it is at least feasible that the two organizations’ massive healthcare systems could jointly develop a common electronic health-record...
State Medicaid officials are challenging a new federal report that says their programs routinely fail to report health provider sanctions in the Medicaid program.
Count New York among the states eyeing Medicaid as a remedy for ailing budgets. New York Gov. David Paterson last week unveiled a plan to cut state spending for the safety net insurer by as much as $500 million for the past six months of 2008 and...
New Jersey’s governor may have inked into law expanded state oversight of financially distressed hospitals, but industry insiders say it will do little to alter the sector’s troubled operations.
A new Massachusetts law mandating the implementation of healthcare information technology systems and governing consulting deals between medical-products companies and providers is drawing both praise and criticism from industry stakeholders who say...
To not-for-profit Memorial Health Services, Anaheim (Calif.) Memorial Medical Center must seem an awful lot like two-sided tape. The Fountain Valley, Calif., system just can’t get the 223-bed hospital off its hands.
Legacy Hospital Partners may be one of the few beneficiaries of the credit crunch. The Plano, Texas, company said its deal prospects are robust because credit has dried up even for some healthy not-for-profit hospital operators that have good...
James Ludlam, a pioneer in the practice of healthcare law—the first and so far only lawyer to be inducted into Modern Healthcare’s Health Care Hall of Fame—died Aug. 12 at the age of 93 in Pasadena, Calif.
Two bellwether states are attempting to sort out the controversial practice of balance billing—with each taking a very different tack on the issue, angering some providers and payers.
It is true that the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology’s 2008 criteria for ambulatory electronic medical records require that a healthcare provider “has the option of including the patient’s diagnosis on the prescription,”...
They are “the millennials,” the latest cadre of twentysomethings, but different than any who came before. Workplaces are struggling to adapt to these young people’s wired ways, unconventional attire, flippant conversation and need for constant...
Jeff Schmidt, director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Competition, plans to leave the commission Aug. 22 to join Linklaters law firm as a partner in their New York office. David Wales, the bureau’s deputy director will be...
Being asked if you’re in pain is hardly an unusual question for a hospital patient to hear, but patients at Atlanta’s Grady Memorial Hospital might be a bit surprised to hear the query being posed by their beds—and in 13 different languages to boot.
