Outlooks news and information

The Great Recession hit the construction industry hard, but the healthcare segment managed to weather the storm.
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The healthcare industry faces two formidable challenges in 2011: the sluggish economy and looming federal regulation.
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Was that a year or what? After a century of struggle, the U.S. finally approves a comprehensive reform of the healthcare system. Backers of the plan say it offers hope that nearly all Americans will obtain access to insurance coverage. But the story is far from over. Republican opponents launch a...
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Patient safety and quality improvement advocates laud President Barack Obama's appointment of Donald Berwick to head the CMS. Berwick is the co-founder and former president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a not-for-profit organization.
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The health information technology community spends the year 2010 like a vast army gathering itself up for war. At the center of the preparations and controlling much of the logistics was the federal government.
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Insurers spend most of the year combing through the new health reform law after its passage in March, and adapting to subsequent regulations that HHS has issued on its provisions.
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With the Obama administration out to prove it can be a responsible steward of healthcare dollars, the government dials up the heat on healthcare fraud.
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For physicians, the healthcare reform debate of 2010 is almost upstaged by the constant threat of having their Medicare reimbursements cut by upward of 20% under the sustainable growth-rate formula.
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Top story: Investor-owned hospital companies go on a buying spree.
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Economists who officially mark the U.S. economy's lows and highs declare in September that the recession had ended more than a year earlier. But a weak recovery and stubbornly high unemployment leaves hospitals with less demand for medical care and more uninsured patients.
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