South Region news and information

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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HOUSTON—Catholic Health Initiatives will acquire six-hospital St. Luke's Episcopal Health System in Houston, pending regulatory approvals. The Texas Episcopal Diocese approved the definitive agreement, which includes a $1 billion investment from Englewood, Colo.-based CHI. CHI will...
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Nearly a year after a Kentucky hospital sued the state over its expanded Medicaid managed-care program, Gov. Steve Beshear has unveiled an “aggressive plan” to resolve payment disputes between payers and providers.
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BATON ROUGE, La.—Plans to privatize most of Louisiana State University's public hospitals means borrowing for repairs and construction of the health facilities will be taxable. That borrowing will cost the state more. The Louisiana State Bond Commission learned that bonds issued for...
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A medical school partnership between Ochsner Health System and an Australian university has graduated its first nine students.
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TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—Florida hospital officials are lobbying lawmakers to expand Medicaid coverage to roughly 1 million residents under the federal healthcare law. A rally last week in Tallahassee came a day after a Senate panel voted against traditional Medicaid expansion and instead...
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Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who swiftly rejected Medicaid expansion under health reform after last year's U.S. Supreme Court decision allowed states to do so, called for the state to expand the safety net program for three years, or as long as federal tax dollars cover all the costs.
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