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It's too soon to pop the Champagne corks on healthcare spending. But the latest evidence suggests the slowdown is real and not just recession-related.
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The healthcare industry is on the cusp of its most dramatic transformation since the advent of Medicare and Medicaid. As the new editor of Modern Healthcare, I have been granted a precious gift.
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Five hundred hours. That's how much time a large hospital had to spend each week recently dealing with recovery audit contractor audits, the hospital's CEO told me at a conference.
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On June 6, I went to have my annual physical. I paid a $15 copay, but I also had blood work done, and when I walked out of the office, I had no idea how much I was going to be obligated to pay for those tests.
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At the center of so many critical issues in healthcare today lies the electronic health record. It's driving the meaningful-use regulations, ICD-10 implementation, updates to Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and the most basic of all questions—how to reduce the cost of...
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In the scramble to find ways to slow rising healthcare costs, experts are finding good ideas from organizations that are virtually unknown beyond their hometowns.
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From volume to value is the industry's current rallying cry as it attempts to shift from a system of paying per case to one that pays for results.
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We no longer have to wonder about what the future under Obamacare may look like, as it has been forced on Massachusetts in legislation just passed as Senate Bill 2400.
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Last week, Massachusetts took the next significant step in reforming its healthcare system: a bill that will save the state as much as $200 billion in the next 15 years. Monday, Governor Deval Patrick signed it into law, saying that Massachusetts has "cracked the code" on controlling healthcare...
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It was Saturday night, and I was at the local Cheesecake Factory with my two teen-age daughters and three of their friends. You may know the chain: a hundred and sixty restaurants with a catalogue-like menu that, when I did a count, listed three hundred and eight dinner items (including the...
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