Pennsylvania news and information

PORTLAND, Maine—Eastern Maine Healthcare Systems acquired Mercy Health System in Portland on Oct. 2 after winning approval from state regulators. Mercy was previously owned by Catholic Health East, which recently merged with Trinity Health and is Brewer-based EMHS' eighth hospital in...
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The Obama administration's recent approval of Arkansas' alternative plan to expand healthcare coverage for low-income residents under the federal healthcare reform law bodes well for several Republican-led states looking to implement their own alternative...
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The Pennsylvania Medical Society is threatening to pull its support for a proposed statewide prescription drug monitoring effort over an amendment that would automatically alert police every time a patient is ordered to take certain drugs. The bill could violate federal patient privacy laws, said...
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New customers to the health insurance marketplace in southwestern Pennsylvania will have more than 35 different plans to choose from. And physicians who treat those patients may have no choice but to keep track of all 35 plans—each with its own coverages, co-payments and deductibles.
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Fast-moving legislative action to track controlled-substance prescriptions in the name of countering addiction has the American Civil Liberties Union concerned about the privacy of Pennsylvania's patients.
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Pennsylvania lawmakers want to bolster the fight against drug abuse by creating a database that would list all prescriptions of habit-forming medications and the identities of the citizens who receive them.
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HACKENSACK,N.J.—Seven systems that include 25 hospitals in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania are banding together in an alliance seeking the benefits of scale without the complications of merging assets. Providers clearly believe bigger is better in this era, and these systems are...
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The UPMC health system is expressing confidence that it won't be seriously wounded in the battle to hold onto patients in the aftermath of the Highmark-West Penn Allegheny merger.
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Seven systems that include 25 hospitals have formed an alliance to build expertise in population health management and capitalize on economies of scale without the complications of merging assets.
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Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett became the 10th Republican governor Mondayto support accepting federal Medicaid expansion dollars to insure hundreds of thousands of working poor, although it remained to be seen how the Obama administration will respond to a list of demands Corbett wants satisfied.
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