By Vince Galloro |
March 22, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription The tornado that ripped through Greensburg, Kan., on May 4, 2007, devastated more than just bricks and mortar, such as Kiowa County Memorial Hospital. It also tore apart the healthcare provider community in the town, said Mary Sweet, the hospital's administrator. So the challenge wasn't only to rebuild a hospital, but also a provider community, she said. FULL STORY »
March 22, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription URBANA, Ill.—Carle Foundation Hospital is poised to pay $250 million to acquire Carle Clinic Association, a practice with about 340 physicians and a subsidiary health plan with 320,000 enrollees, Health Alliance Medical Plan. The Illinois Health Facilities and Services Review Board granted a certificate of need this month for the deal, which is targeted to close April 1. The 279-bed hospital said in its filings with the board that the purchase would be funded with an $82.8 million bond issue and a promissory note for the balance. Health Alliance would continue to operate as a... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Rush University Medical Center agreed to pay $1.5 million to resolve allegations that the 681-bed teaching hospital entered into prohibited lease arrangements for office space provided to two physicians and three practices, the U.S. Justice Department announced. FULL STORY »
By Gregg Blesch |
March 08, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription The remaining members of the Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati have reached a memorandum of understanding that leaves the University of Cincinnati as the alliance's sole member and guides an orderly divvying up of shared assets. FULL STORY »
By Gregg Blesch |
March 08, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Leaders of Methodist Hospitals, based in Gary, Ind., are heralding signs that their rescue efforts have paid off. FULL STORY »
March 22, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription BOSTON—Cleve Killingsworth resigned his post as president and CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts. William Van Faasen, who was CEO of the company from 1992 to 2005 until he retired, will serve as interim president and CEO while the company searches for Killingsworth's successor, company officials said in a news release. No reason was provided for Killingsworth's departure, but it comes following financial results in February showing the company lost $149 million during fiscal 2009. The insurer also has been embroiled in a struggle with state officials over... FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription HARTFORD, Conn.—The University of Connecticut Health Center would expand and renovate its John Dempsey Hospital under a proposed network between the academic medical center and other Connecticut hospitals and health systems. The $352 million proposal—of which just $25 million has been financed—would add a $236 million patient tower at the John Dempsey Hospital, Farmington, Conn., and another $96 million in further renovations to the 155-bed hospital. The remaining $20 million would finance other network projects, including a simulation center at Hartford Healthcare's... FULL STORY »
March 08, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription ROCHESTER, N.Y.—Unity Health System is expected to begin construction preparation in April for a $158 million expansion and renovation of Unity Hospital. The project, once completed in 2014, will add a fourth floor and 35 beds to the 441-bed hospital with capacity for another 50 beds. State health officials approved the project in January and February. Officials in the town of Greece, N.Y., cleared the deal this month, said Patrizia Corvaia, a Unity spokeswoman. Renovation plans will convert the hospital's nursing home annex into space for its gastrointestinal unit and dialysis... FULL STORY »
February 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription HARRISBURG, Pa.—The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania last week rejected a proposal in the governor's budget that the trade group said would cut state Medicaid payments to hospitals by roughly $31.9 million. The trade group said Gov. Edward Rendell's $66.4 billion budget would reduce overall Medicaid reimbursement by $73.4 million after factoring in the loss of federal funds that match state spending for the safety net program. Federal funding for Medicaid increased temporarily under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. If extended through June... FULL STORY »
February 08, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription BRIDGEPORT, Conn.—St. Vincent’s Medical Center began accepting patients at the new Elizabeth Pfriem SWIM Center for Cancer Care. The 125,000-square-foot building cost about $50 million and is designed to consolidate cancer prevention, diagnostic and treatment, according to a news release from St. Vincent’s. SWIM Across the Sound is a not-for-profit affiliate of St. Vincent’s focused on cancer education, prevention and screening at low or no cost. The four-story cancer center building also houses the new Michael J. Daly Center for Emergency and Trauma Care. The... FULL STORY »
By Joe Carlson |
March 22, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription The state attorney's office for Broward County, Fla., closed a second investigation of a former attorney for the publicly run Broward Health without bringing criminal charges against either lawyer. Both lawyers still have whistle-blower lawsuits pending against the system. FULL STORY »
March 22, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla.—Administrators at Morton Plant North Bay Hospital have expanded their bed count by 25% through a $49 million construction project that added a new hospital tower and a medical arts building on the same campus. The two-year project doubled the size of the hospital campus, which is about 25 miles north of Tampa and owned by four-hospital Morton Plant Mease Health Care, Clearwater, Fla. The new, four-story Starkey Medical Tower brings the New Port Richey hospital's total bed count to 154 from 122 beds and adds a new intensive-care unit, a cardiac unit, and... FULL STORY »
By Gregg Blesch |
March 22, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Hospitals and physicians in Georgia are celebrating a legal victory for tort reform while looking ahead with some trepidation toward an imminent decision that will either uphold or sink the noneconomic damage caps at the core of the 2005 medical malpractice law. FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription SAN ANTONIO—The Veterans Affairs Department has awarded two contracts totaling $41.5 million to create a polytrauma center for the care of severely injured veterans and to improve existing wards at the Audie L. Murphy VA Medical Center in San Antonio. One award for $37.2 million will be used for the construction of a three-story, 84,000-square foot polytrauma center that will include physical medicine, rehabilitation services, prosthetics service and research. The term “polytrauma” refers to healthcare for veterans who have more than one severe, life-threatening... FULL STORY »
March 08, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription CHARLESTON, S.C.—The Medical University of South Carolina and Georgetown (S.C.) Hospital System said they are expanding their partnership with a new strategic affiliation agreement. The agreement will bring more medical specialty consultation services to Georgetown facilities via a telecommunications system that links the two providers and provides greater access to clinical trials and research. MUSC residents and medical students will gain training opportunities. The academic medical center and the Georgetown system jointly developed an $11 million cancer center in Georgetown... FULL STORY »
March 22, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription DURANGO, Colo.—Mercy Regional Medical Center, an 82-bed Catholic Health Initiatives hospital in Durango, will be integrated into Centura Health, a 12-hospital system based in Englewood, Colo. With this move, all of CHI’s Colorado hospitals will belong to the same subsystem. The integration was approved by the CHI Board of Stewardship Trustees March 11, and followed a previous unanimous recommendation to integrate by the Mercy Regional board of directors. The integration became effective immediately following the vote, said Centura spokeswoman Wendi Dammann. FULL STORY »
March 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription A federal jury convicted the owner of a medical clinic of healthcare fraud and money laundering for billing Medicare more than $3.4 million in the names of four physicians whose identities were stolen, the U.S. attorney's office announced. FULL STORY »
March 08, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription VALLEJO, Calif.—Kaiser Permanente has opened a new hospital, Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center. The 457,000-square-foot facility has five stories and includes 120 medical/surgical beds, 38 emergency room bays and expanded emergency, radiology and surgery services. The hospital is fully wired for Kaiser Permanente HealthConnect, the Oakland, Calif., managed-care giant's electronic health-record system. The hospital, about 40 miles northeast of San Francisco, cost an estimated $450 million. It was originally slated to open in November 2009 but was delayed. FULL STORY »
February 15, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription DOWNEY, Calif.—The Daughters of Charity Health System has entered exclusive negotiations to purchase a not-for-profit hospital in bankruptcy in Downey that serves southeast Los Angeles County, the two organizations said. Daughters of Charity, a six-hospital Roman Catholic system based in Los Altos Hills, Calif., has received notice that officials for 181-bed Downey Regional Medical Center have approved a letter of intent for affiliation with the system. A news release from Daughters of Charity said Downey Regional filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last September, and... FULL STORY »
By Gregg Blesch |
February 08, 2010
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Print Magazine Subscription Several legal cases are drawing to a close for two former Los Angeles hospital owners accused of filling beds with patients recruited from the area known as Skid Row. But the matter appears far from over. FULL STORY »
