Jean DerGurahian June 01, 2009 While the CMS and hospitals continue to sharpen their focus on high patient-satisfaction scores, new research indicates there isn’t any correlation between how happy patients are and a hospital’s expenses and profitability, or mortality and complication rates. ... FULL STORY
Jessica Zigmond June 01, 2009 When asked to name her top priority as the new director of the Indian Health Service, physician Yvette Roubideaux said she believes her first task is “to listen.” ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 This special report on the future of managed care under different healthcare reform scenarios is based on a roundtable discussion held on May 4 in Modern Healthcare's Chicago offices with three prominent leaders involved in the purchase, design and administration of health insurance coverage. ... FULL STORY
Neil McLaughlin June 01, 2009 Published reports have said recently that opponents of healthcare reform have seized on “patient rights” as a theme in their efforts to squelch any legislative initiatives. According to these reports, the advice is that opponents stress how patients would be at the mercy of faceless government... ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 Dozens of medical organizations—including the American Medical Association and Medical Group Management Association—are calling on federal lawmakers to repeal Medicare’s sustainable growth-rate formula and enact other payment reforms. In joint recommendations sent to Congress, the Obama... ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 Tenet Healthcare Corp. will take 20% ownership of a new joint venture focused on providing information technology services to its hospitals and physician practices. The joint venture, dubbed Med3000 Practice Resources, was formed by a Tenet subsidiary and Med3000, a healthcare management and... ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 Kettering Health Network, Dayton, Ohio, now owns a 50% stake in the Medical Center at Elizabeth Place, a physician-owned hospital in Dayton, the parties said, revealing for the first time a deal that was finalized in January. The financial terms were not disclosed. The Medical Center at Elizabeth... ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 The Healthcare Financial Management Association, Westchester, Ill., released a sample charity-care policy as not-for-profit hospitals prepare for more detailed disclosure to the IRS of free care and other subsidized services. The sample policy defines charity care as costs for services that “are... ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 The city of New Orleans has put up $2 million in earnest money toward the purchase and eventual reopening of a hospital on the city’s east side, which has been without its own acute-care facility since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Frederick Young Jr., president of Methodist Health System Foundation,... ... FULL STORY
Jessica Zigmond June 01, 2009 When asked to name her top priority as the new director of the Indian Health Service, physician Yvette Roubideaux said she believes her first task is “to listen.” ... FULL STORY
Matthew DoBias June 01, 2009 A push to reshape the U.S. healthcare system got a substantial boost last week as federal actuaries said that they would judge an effort to insure all Americans as a revenue generator rather than a new federal tax. ... FULL STORY
Jennifer Lubell June 01, 2009 It may be the calm before the storm for providers subject to the Recovery Audit Contractor program. As soon as this week, the first audit letters requesting medical records of hospitals are expected to be sent out to hospitals under the new program. ... FULL STORY
Shawn Rhea June 01, 2009 The race is on to become the first and last standing among developers hoping to create a massive medical-products mart that would draw buyers from across the country to do one-stop shopping. But the efforts, which are being mounted in Cleveland, Nashville and New York—and together are valued at... ... FULL STORY
Melanie Evans June 01, 2009 U.S. hospitals, clinics and imaging centers face an ongoing shortage of an essential ingredient in most nuclear medicine imaging. ... FULL STORY
Shawn Rhea June 01, 2009 A number of academic medical institutions have announced medical-device research and development initiatives in recent weeks as part of efforts that some states are making to refocus their manufacturing industries and create high-tech jobs. ... FULL STORY
Jean DerGurahian June 01, 2009 A leading provider of bedside computer applications for patient engagement is promoting the use of its own and similar products by creating and helping fund a not-for-profit institute devoted to researching patient-engagement effectiveness. ... FULL STORY
Andis Robeznieks June 01, 2009 A new study suggesting that hospitals disciplined fewer physicians in recent years has the consumer advocacy backer of the study—Public Citizen—claiming hospitals have dropped the ball. ... FULL STORY
Andis Robeznieks June 01, 2009 The American Medical Association’s expenses were up while its revenue and membership were down in 2008, according to its recently released annual report, but it could have been worse. ... FULL STORY
Rebecca Vesely June 01, 2009 Retail clinics are augmenting care to the insured and affluent rather than providing a primary source of care to low-income uninsured, concluded a study released last week. ... FULL STORY
Rebecca Vesely June 01, 2009 California’s serious fiscal crisis is threatening to undermine its healthcare safety net, and if approved by the Legislature, cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will likely put more pressure on hospitals to care for the uninsured. ... FULL STORY
Joe Carlson June 01, 2009 Trinity Health, Novi, Mich., is realigning its executive team to move away from a “hospital-centric” management structure and toward a model that places more emphasis on the system’s ambulatory and physician services, which generate about half of the system’s revenue, President and CEO Joseph... ... FULL STORY
Melanie Evans June 01, 2009 One of the many efforts out of Washington this year to remedy tight credit markets offered banks a limited chance to double-dip on tax breaks to invest in municipal bonds. But will banks take the plunge? ... FULL STORY
Jean DerGurahian June 01, 2009 While the CMS and hospitals continue to sharpen their focus on high patient-satisfaction scores, new research indicates there isn’t any correlation between how happy patients are and a hospital’s expenses and profitability, or mortality and complication rates. ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 Money can’t buy you love. But can love buy you money? Maybe. But not in healthcare. Welcome to Modern Healthcare’s ninth annual ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 The Thomson Reuters 100 Top Hospitals study has been a 16-year journey to build a national balanced score card. The journey has been highlighted by annual improvement in methodologies and measures. The latest innovation—introduction of the 100 Top Hospitals Performance Matrix—is a major step... ... FULL STORY
Linda Wilson June 01, 2009 At Gundersen Lutheran Health System, the culprits behind a nighttime noise problem were not things that go bump in the night but rather things that go beep. ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 This special report on the future of managed care under different healthcare reform scenarios is based on a roundtable discussion held on May 4 in Modern Healthcare's Chicago offices with three prominent leaders involved in the purchase, design and administration of health insurance coverage. ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 This special report on the future of managed care under healthcare reform is based on a roundtable discussion held May 4 at Modern Healthcare's Chicago offices. Panelists were Allan Baumgarten, an independent health insurance research analyst; Vicky Gregg, president and CEO of Blue Cross and... ... FULL STORY
Neil McLaughlin June 01, 2009 Published reports have said recently that opponents of healthcare reform have seized on “patient rights” as a theme in their efforts to squelch any legislative initiatives. According to these reports, the advice is that opponents stress how patients would be at the mercy of faceless government... ... FULL STORY
Mike Alkire June 01, 2009 In 2008, the Food and Drug Administration estimates that as many as 146 patients died in the U.S. after receiving heparin manufactured using counterfeit raw materials in China. The contaminated heparin contained oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, which costs $9 a pound compared with $900 a pound for... ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 In your recent article “Sebelius talks infections …” (May 11, p. 10), HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is cited as challenging hospitals to reduce their rates of central-line-associated bloodstream infections, or CLABs, by 75%. While a 75% reduction would certainly represent dramatic improvement,... ... FULL STORY
JIm Bickel June 01, 2009 On June 7, 2008, Columbus (Ind.) Regional Hospital confronted the unimaginable. Heavy rains caused a nearby creek to overflow and flood the basement and first floor of our hospital, forcing us to evacuate 157 patients. Our laboratory, pharmacy, information technology center, radiology equipment,... ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 A list of the nation's largest health insurers, by revenue, based on 2008 healthcare-related revenue from health, life and health statutory filings. Source: TheStreet.com Ratings. Published June 1, 2009. ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 Four executives set plans to retire from Ball Memorial Hospital, Muncie, Ind., and its former parent company, Cardinal Health System, which dissolved Jan. 1 when it became part of Indianapolis-based Clarian Health. Kelly Stanley, 65, who was president and CEO of Cardinal, plans to retire in... ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 Annmarie Hagan is succeeding Michael Bell as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Cigna Corp., effective May 26. Bell, 45, who has worked at Cigna for 25 years and has been CFO since 2002, has resigned from the company. No specific reason was given for Bell’s... ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 Willard Tom, 56, will return to the Federal Trade Commission as general counsel. Tom worked for the FTC in the 1990s as deputy director of the Bureau of Competition, a role that included healthcare policy development. After leaving the FTC, he practiced as a partner in the law firm Morgan,... ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 David Shade was named president and COO of Huron Consulting Group, the Chicago-based firm that bought Shade’s former firm Wellspring Partners in January 2007. Shade, 64, has been the leader of Huron’s healthcare consulting practice since the acquisition of Wellspring, where he had been... ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 If you first read on physician Ross Martin’s blog, rossmartinmd.com/f/blog.htm, that the good doctor “had been thinking about writing a song for AHIC, CCHIT and the HITSP for a couple of years,” you might think, “God help this poor man.” ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 Sometimes just being an incredible invention isn’t enough. A steep price tag proved to be one obstacle that the U.S.’ first stair-climbing wheelchair couldn’t overcome. ... FULL STORY
June 01, 2009 You may have long suspected that Outliers is a real twit, but now it’s official. Yes, we’ve succumbed to Twitter fever, and hope we can get you to follow us there at twitter.com/mhoutliers. Besides Twittering about our staff-written items from the magazine and the Associated Press items we... ... FULL STORY
