Reimbursement pressures, regulatory hassles and a looming presidential election did not slow the pace of healthcare-related initial public offerings in 2007, and the new year holds promise for more to come.
As 2007 came to a close, many of the themes of the year had yet to play themselves out. One of the biggest shifts was the return of healthcare reform as a national political issue.
Not-for-profit hospitals will have to report a lot more bad-debt information, and it won’t be included in the community benefit reporting under the final 2008 Internal Revenue Service Form 990 for tax-exempt organizations. What’s more, the...
Reimbursement pressures, regulatory hassles and a looming presidential election did not slow the pace of healthcare-related initial public offerings in 2007, and the new year holds promise for more to come.
Hospitals, long-term-care facilities and other providers emerged as winners from an otherwise thin Medicare bill, while physicians were left to grouse over a short-term pay fix that Congress granted them as it raced to a close last week before the...
Federal lawmakers last week passed a mammoth, catch-all appropriations bill that eliminated many of President Bush’s targeted cuts and instead flows billions of dollars to medical research, rural healthcare, community health centers and thousands of...
An ambitious plan released last week that would insure all Americans while saving $1.5 trillion over 10 years could stir healthy debate, but may be too ambitious for Congress to turn into policy, experts say.
A proposal to reform healthcare in California got some momentum last week with its passage in the state Assembly, renewing the prospect that the state with the largest number of uninsured—6.8 million—could be on the path toward historic change.
The hot topic of value-based purchasing, or hospital pay-for-performance, is almost certain to be on Congress’ agenda next year—but there’s no guarantee that lawmakers will enact such a program.
One year after becoming law, New York’s landmark experiment in mandated hospital closures, mergers and restructurings is proceeding as planned. In fact the majority of affected hospitals and nursing homes are meeting or exceeding the June 30, 2008...
That resonant clang you’re hearing could be from the opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq after the latest healthcare company went public in 2007. But more likely it’s the sound of money jangling in the pockets of executives who...
The sale of a care-management services company will provide the American Hospital Association a holiday financial bounty and also eliminate the appearance that the association could influence federal officials when the company bids on government...
The appointment of a top Vanderbilt University healthcare official to the board of directors of a major pharmaceutical company did not go unnoticed by the university or its medical center.
When it comes to benchmarking material costs, if you’ve seen one hospital’s spending analysis, you’ve seen one hospital, according to supply-chain experts.
As 2007 came to a close, many of the themes of the year had yet to play themselves out. One of the biggest shifts was the return of healthcare reform as a national political issue.
LOS ANGELES—Blue Shield of California was fined $12.6 million by California’s insurance commissioner for alleged violations of policy cancellation rules and “irresponsible” claims processing, including failing to pay claims on a timely basis...
PORTLAND, Maine—Five-hospital MaineHealth formed a clinical affiliation with Pen Bay Healthcare, owner of 171-bed Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport, Maine. The affiliation, according to a MaineHealth news release, includes plans to...
URBANA, Ill.—The Carle Foundation Hospital is suing to recover its property tax exemption and the $5.4 million in taxes paid since most of its properties, including its 275-bed hospital, were added to the tax rolls in 2005. The lawsuit, filed...
GOOCHLAND, Va.—HCA Richmond (Va.) Health System said it filed a letter of intent with state regulators to build a 100-bed hospital in the West Creek Corporate Center in Goochland, a western suburb of Richmond. The full application for a...
As the healthcare world looks to the new year, an industrywide resolution might be in order. Although we can quibble about many aspects of improving the delivery of care—such as whether evidence-based medicine is advanced enough or...
Proposals to reform our healthcare system have come to dominate this presidential election cycle. As Modern Healthcare’s Guide to Healthcare in the Presidential Campaign (Nov. 26) shows, candidates have advocated cautious plans for expanded...
I must respond to Todd Sloane’s editorial on the stalemate in Washington (“The priority is politics,” Dec. 17, p. 22). His disdain for the president seems to get in the way of good judgment.
Is it over? Are you finished? Or are you willing to get back on the field of play and compete? Too many businesspeople slink off after losing a job. Others retire too early or are seduced by cushier, better-paying jobs that may sound ideal, but they...
David Kessler was dismissed as dean of the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine, according to the university. In June, UCSF Chancellor J. Michael Bishop asked Kessler for his resignation no later than Jan. 1, 2008, and...
A lawsuit along with legislative action are expected to rain down on the Georgia Board of Community Health’s Dec. 13 unanimous 6-0 decision to approve a controversial certificate-of-need rule that recognizes general surgeons as single specialists.
The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, in announcing with great fanfare earlier this month its pledge of $100 million to a scholarship program for graduating seniors from Pittsburgh public schools, left out a piece of information that might...
