South Region news and information

AUSTIN, Texas—The Texas Health Services Authority and the Health Information Trust Alliance are partnering to develop and implement a program that will improve the security of health information for Texas residents. The two organizations will run the Texas Covered Entity Privacy and...
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DALLAS—The biggest not-for-profit healthcare player in Texas is now Baylor Scott & White Health, a system formed last week when Baylor Health Care System and Scott & White Healthcare consummated a long-planned merger. The organization has 43...
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BATON ROUGE, La.—Management of two LSU hospitals in north Louisiana is being turned over to a not-for-profit research foundation that has never run a patient-care facility, raising concerns about whether it has the experience and the financing needed to oversee the public hospitals.
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KINGSPORT, Tenn.—With the help of six employers in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia, Wellmont Health System in Kingsport introduced a free community health initiative known as Wellmont LiveWell. Eastman Chemical Co., Food City, Alpha Natural Resources, Domtar Corp.,...
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INVERNESS, Fla.—The Citrus County Hospital Board narrowed the bidding for its struggling Citrus Memorial Health System to three for-profit suitors. The board received five proposals from four bidders looking to take over the hospital, which is saddled with $80 million in debt and $30...
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NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla.—Health Management Associates is on its way to forging its third deal this year after it was selected to begin negotiations with Bert Fish Medical Center. The public Southeast Volusia Hospital District chose Naples,...
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Georgia's Phoebe Putney Health System, which has gone to the U.S. Supreme Court and back in its quest to buy a rival hospital for $200 million, lost a key legal battle last week when a federal judge imposed what he called an “extraordinary and drastic” restraining order on the...
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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn.—Mountain States Health Alliance, which operates 12 hospitals in northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia, will join Vanderbilt University Medical Center's network of affiliated hospitals. As part of the affiliation, the two organizations will collaborate on...
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As Congress drafted elements of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that would tie Medicare payments to quality metrics, the House of Representatives added a provision that would shield physicians from lawsuits tied to their failure to meet those marks.
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NAPLES, Fla.—Health Management Associates, an investor-owned hospital company based in Naples, and Florida Blue, Florida's Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee, will form an accountable care organization to serve patients in Brevard County, Fla. HMA's physicians, along with two of its...
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