Hospital competition is on the upswing in Florida, Georgia and Iowa, where legislation passed in recent weeks makes it easier for healthcare construction to begin.
Until recently, U.S. hospitals purchasing the chemotherapy drug irinotecan had to pay hundreds of dollars per dose for Pfizer’s brand-name version, Camptosar. But when the drug came off patent early this year, group purchaser Premier was able to...
A federal judge in Washington slapped down a CMS regulation that would have limited states’ leeway to manipulate Medicaid reimbursement to subsidize safety net services, siding with several hospital associations that sued the agency in U.S. District...
Hospital competition is on the upswing in Florida, Georgia and Iowa, where legislation passed in recent weeks makes it easier for healthcare construction to begin.
As states across the country tackle certificate-of-need revisions, Minnesota’s Legislature last week endorsed some of the latest approaches to reforming healthcare.
Congress’ scramble to put together a Medicare bill that includes a rollback of cuts to physician reimbursement and other provider desires got a little more complicated last week when lawmakers threw an electronic-prescribing measure into the...
Healthcare’s push to make over patients into savvy consumers took an unusual twist last week when Medicare spent $2 million on ads that compared more than 1,060 hospitals’ performance in newspapers from the New York Times to the Anchorage...
A controversial CMS competitive-bidding project for durable medical equipment faces growing opposition from suppliers, with some contract winners choosing not to participate in the program. They argue that reimbursement rates are lower than what the...
A Congressional Budget Office report questioning the value of healthcare information technology was greeted coolly by industry executives and at least one member of Congress.
A long-planned healthcare payment model is set to move from theory to practice in January 2009 at four pilot sites across the country in the latest of several efforts to improve the way providers are paid across the continuum of care.
Before Community Health Systems drives Empire Health Services off the lot, KPMG International is going to have a look under the hood to ensure the for-profit chain is paying enough for the Spokane, Wash., not-for-profit.
The fight over physician ownership has taken an interesting turn in Kansas, where the state’s high court ruled on a 3-year-old case that pitted physician investors against each other.
With a fresh federal appeals court victory on the subject, the Federal Trade Commission is exploring how the benefits of clinical integration among independent providers weigh against the government’s obligation to bust collaboration that crosses...
Add two more companies to the probably thousands of corporations with “interlocking” boards of directors whose direct and indirect business relationships weave a cobweb of potential conflict of interest issues.
Until recently, U.S. hospitals purchasing the chemotherapy drug irinotecan had to pay hundreds of dollars per dose for Pfizer’s brand-name version, Camptosar. But when the drug came off patent early this year, group purchaser Premier was able to...
In the spring of 2005, I made an impudent proposal to the president and board chair of Maimonides Medical Center in New York: Let me spend a year roaming free in your hospital and then write about what I learned. Amazingly, they agreed to let me...
There are parallel situations with the National Century Financial Enterprises case in today’s credit market turmoil. There is the criminal intent at the original source of the transaction, on the parts of NCFE and those who wrote the mortgages...
As many readers know, a life in sports has left me with some joint problems. Two hip replacements and a knee replacement were the inevitable results of playing ice hockey from my teens well into my 60s. I ran distance races and played other...
Lee Penrose was promoted to president and CEO of St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton, Calif., effective May 19. Penrose, who was senior vice president and CFO of the hospital for eight years, succeeds Robert Fraschetti, who announced...
