Joe Carlson August 31, 2009 Financial strain and the potential of federal regulatory reform are causing hospitals and health systems to consider a more extreme option to adapt to circumstances and rebuild operations—pressing reset on the management structure. ... FULL STORY
Shawn Rhea August 31, 2009 When regional group purchasing organizations consolidated into a handful of national groups throughout the 1980s and '90s, the moves were largely based on a belief that healthcare providers leverage better pricing when large organizations band together to contract with suppliers. ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 “Such was his authority that many people this spring and summer believed healthcare reform would have advanced much further through Congress had Mr. Kennedy been healthy enough to assume his customary shepherding role. … As with most of us, his final days were another object lesson in... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 In an Aug. 10 story, “An $18 billion problem” (p. 10), Connie March of Provena Health's Senior Services was quoted incorrectly. March said Medicaid covers about 65% to 70% of costs for providing skilled... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 The Los Angeles city attorney’s office will ask Los Angeles hospitals to voluntarily abide by the terms of a settlement reached with College Hospitals prohibiting the transport of discharged homeless patients to the area known as Skid Row. The agreement reached in April with College Hospital... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, N.J., launched a restructuring less than two years after a structural retooling that took place in January 2008. According to company spokesman Bill Price, J&J is eliminating its comprehensive care business, the smallest of its four business units, which was... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 Healthcare leaders are responsible for patient safety at their facilities and should implement steps to prevent errors taken by other industries, according to the Joint Commission’s latest Sentinel Event Alert. The accrediting organization is urging leaders to take zero-defect approaches... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 The American Health Care Association, which represents the nation’s nursing homes, commended 31 state attorneys general for asking the CMS to suspend and revise its Five-Star Quality Rating System for nursing homes. In a letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, the attorneys general said... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 Weeks after Catholic Health Association President and CEO Sister Carol Keehan stood with Vice President Joe Biden in Washington to celebrate progress toward health reform, the hospital association says it has never endorsed a specific bill and would seek strict conditions in any proposal of which... ... FULL STORY
Joe Carlson August 31, 2009 Financial strain and the potential of federal regulatory reform are causing hospitals and health systems to consider a more extreme option to adapt to circumstances and rebuild operations—pressing reset on the management structure. ... FULL STORY
Jennifer Lubell August 31, 2009 Amid dire statistics released last week that the federal deficit will climb into the trillions over the next decade, healthcare policy experts say that reducing payments to providers wouldn't be the answer to achieving additional savings in healthcare reform. ... FULL STORY
Rebecca Vesely August 31, 2009 The adoption of health information technology appears to help reduce geographic variations in clinical performance, according to new physician pay-for-performance results for the state of California. ... FULL STORY
Andis Robeznieks August 31, 2009 A continuing U.S. Senate investigation into possible academic and healthcare industry conflicts of interest has led to one prominent physician resigning his leadership post from a national medical specialty society. ... FULL STORY
Jessica Zigmond August 31, 2009 After a presidential advisory committee report last week said a resurgence of the 2009 H1N1 virus could cause 30,000 to 90,000 U.S. deaths later this year, healthcare providers expressed concern about protecting their employees against the deadly flu strain. ... FULL STORY
Melanie Evans August 31, 2009 Hospital and health system investment portfolios are rebounding along with equity markets this year, but gains fall short of erasing steep losses from 2008, say industry executives ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 In an exclusive podcast interview, Modern Healthcare Editor David Burda talks with Duane Erwin, president and CEO of the Aspirus health system based in Wausau, Wis., on how his system incorporates physicians into the system’s governance structure and certain business ventures. Erwin... ... FULL STORY
Gregg Blesch August 31, 2009 How much is it appropriate for a hospital to pay a physician? Without explaining how the line was drawn, the Justice Department says it was crossed in Waterloo, Iowa, when Covenant Medical Center paid a handful of employed specialists sums as high as $1.8 million apiece. ... FULL STORY
Melanie Evans August 31, 2009 Duke University Health System’s solution to a debt financing problem may soon be more common among not-for-profit healthcare borrowers. ... FULL STORY
Rebecca Vesely August 31, 2009 Despite the dragging recession, some states are moving forward with their own healthcare reform efforts to strengthen consumer protections and expand coverage to the uninsured. ... FULL STORY
Matthew DoBias August 31, 2009 The death of Edward Kennedy, who during nearly five decades in the Senate became the heart and soul of Democrats’ push to change the nation’s healthcare system, leaves strategic as well as inspirational gaps for his party. ... FULL STORY
Joseph Conn August 31, 2009 The Federation of American Hospitals asked federal officials to ignore the recommendation of a policy advisory committee that says providers should meet quality improvement targets as a condition to receiving federal subsidies for the purchase of electronic health-record systems. ... FULL STORY
Shawn Rhea August 31, 2009 Clinical care isn't the only segment of the U.S. healthcare industry going global these days. Like a growing number of U.S. hospitals, American supply-chain businesses are also reaching into international markets. ... FULL STORY
Shawn Rhea August 31, 2009 When regional group purchasing organizations consolidated into a handful of national groups throughout the 1980s and '90s, the moves were largely based on a belief that healthcare providers leverage better pricing when large organizations band together to contract with suppliers. ... FULL STORY
Vince Galloro August 31, 2009 What a local community group couldn’t negotiate from Catholic Health Initiatives, Kansas Attorney General Steve Six will try to win in court. ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 AUSTIN, Texas—St. David's HealthCare completed construction on its new, $89 million St. David's Women's Center of Texas in late spring. Three stories high, the 221,568-square-foot facility includes 29 labor-and-delivery rooms, five Cesarean-section surgical suites, a Breast Cancer... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO—San Franciscans participating in the city's unique health access program report high levels of satisfaction, though a quarter said they delayed or skipped care because of cost or coverage issues, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report. Healthy San Francisco,... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 NEW YORK—Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University agreed to extend an affiliation in place since 1968 by 10 years. Under the agreement, 1,094-bed Montefiore will be responsible for the oversight of residency programs while Albert... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 MILWAUKEE—Patients looking for a natural refuge during their hospital stays at 733-bed Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center can now visit the hospital’s all-season rooftop healing garden. The $4.9 million project includes the outdoor Vince Lombardi Charitable Funds Healing... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 “Such was his authority that many people this spring and summer believed healthcare reform would have advanced much further through Congress had Mr. Kennedy been healthy enough to assume his customary shepherding role. … As with most of us, his final days were another object lesson in... ... FULL STORY
David Witt August 31, 2009 A 1990 study by the Harvard School of Public Health found that about 8% of healthcare spending is on defensive medicine, an estimate later researchers have confirmed. Eliminating these unnecessary expenses would save nearly $200 billion. Added to the many collateral gains from eliminating defensive... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 Now that the hype has died down about who we think are the “most powerful” people in healthcare, I'm saddened to see that we forgot to name the “most important” people—John and Jane Q. Public (“Top of the hill,” Aug. 24, p. 6). ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 A list of the nation's largest healthcare management consulting firms, ranked by 2008 revenue from provider consulting fees. Source: Modern Healthcare's fourth annual Management Consultant Firms Survey. Published Aug. 31, 2009. ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 Tenet Healthcare Corp., Dallas, said it hired Tyler Murphy as its vice president and treasurer. Murphy, 39, most recently worked for rehabilitation provider HealthSouth Corp., Birmingham, Ala., where he was senior vice president of treasury, risk management and investor relations. Murphy... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 Dennis O’Leary, the Joint Commission president emeritus, joined Awarepoint Corp. as chief strategy officer. O’Leary, a physician, will help oversee the development and execution of strategic initiatives within the company, which hopes to expand applications of its technology. ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 “Ted Kennedy comes as close to being indispensable as any individual I've ever known in the Senate because he had a unique way of sitting down with the parties at a table and making the right concessions. It's huge that he's absent—not only because of my personal affection for him,... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 “I'm crying over those people in that nursing home. … This is a tragedy in our time. My God, it's been there since Mary Pickford.” ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 If you want a smoke-free hospital, head for the heartland. Arkansas, Iowa and Oklahoma were among the states with the highest proportion of smokeless hospital campuses, according to a study appearing in the online version of the journal Tobacco Control, which says that by the end of 2009 a... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 Just like any fan who goes to hear a band in concert, Stephen Jones knows which song he’d like to hear live. Jones, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, will turn up at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, N.J. in late September hoping to hear the title track off... ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2009 If timing is indeed truly everything, then—if the best formula for healthcare reform comes out of the Texas Medical Association's annual meeting this Labor Day weekend and it gets adopted nationally—maybe Dave Matthews, Eddie Vedder, Kings of Leon and other musicians performing at the... ... FULL STORY
