Outlooks news and information

While 2010 marked a tipping point for electronic health records in the healthcare industry, 2011 will likely produce a rapid uptake by healthcare providers in higher-quality EHR systems, chiefly because of a very heavy federal thumb on the scale and relatively low adoption rates at the start of the...
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Quality and patient-safety experts are predicting an eventful year in 2011, as the government heightens its focus on performance-based reporting and payment alignment.
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Reimbursement and quality improvement are two of the bigger issues facing post-acute-care providers in 2011, with new regulations and federal payment systems kicking in.
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Healthcare lawyers will have full dance cards this year as their clients scramble to keep step with the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
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After an initial two-month freeze on Medicare physician reimbursement was passed Dec. 19, 2009, Congress spent 2010 passing a series of short-term “fixes” in March, April, June and November that forestalled slashing physician payments by more than 20% under the sustainable growth rate...
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Investor-owned hospital companies have had a decent downturn on the whole, as their cost-cutting has enabled profits to remain stable or grow despite a lack of volume growth.
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The economy's stress on hospital revenue is expected to continue in the year ahead, as households struggle in a weak recovery, states face another round of budget shortfalls and Congress grapples with the federal budget deficit.
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Health insurers in the coming year will be working to be in compliance with new regulations under the health reform law while, at the same time, they seek to diversify their businesses through mergers and acquisitions.
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Tumbling investment portfolio values and tightening credit markets slowed the pace of hospitals' capital investment over the past two years. But that's expected to change this year.
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Not that long ago, the national nursing shortage was so critical that even serial killer Charles Cullen didn't have much trouble landing nursing jobs, hopping between 10 hospitals in New Jersey and Pennsylvania before he was finally nabbed in 2003.
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