By Rebecca Vesely November 13, 2009 Attendees of the 14th annual National Business Coalition on Health conference Nov. 8-10 practiced what they preached. They hoofed up hills to and from their rooms at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in the brilliant Phoenix sunshine. They dined on Southwestern grilled chicken breast with corn and black beans. Some possibly even logged time in the resort's multiple fitness centers. Health, productivity and wellness were once again central themes of the conference, and the need to find solutions seemed ever-more pressing as we head into year three of the great recession. ... FULL STORY
By Gregg Blesch November 11, 2009 Judy Feder, a professor of health policy at Georgetown University, calls herself “a mean-spirited optimist.” Congress, she predicted, will pass a healthcare bill. “I'm happy to say, I think they're stuck,” she said. The Democrats are simply in too deep to pass nothing, Feder told about 200 lawyers assembled for the American Bar Association's Washington Healthcare Summit, held Oct. 25-26 at the Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City. ... FULL STORY
By Vince Galloro November 04, 2009 Richard Pollack and Tom Scully both know Washington and the current healthcare debate inside out. Listening to them both speak to the Tennessee Hospital Association's annual meeting last week in Nashville, only one of them sounded like a man who makes his living lobbying Congress. They both do so, of course. Pollack is the executive vice president in charge of advocacy and public policy for the American Hospital Association. Scully, a former CMS administrator, is senior counsel in the Washington office of the law firm Alston & Bird. ... FULL STORY
By Andis Robeznieks October 26, 2009 In his opening keynote speech at the Medical Group Management Association's recent annual conference in Denver, Ezekiel Emanuel gave 2.24 trillion reasons why there is so much excitement over healthcare reform. ... FULL STORY
By Andis Robeznieks October 02, 2009 Although the Olympics won't be coming to Chicago, the 22nd annual Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo was held again at the city's lakefront Navy Pier facility this week and it's already committed to returning again next September. Take that, International Olympic Committee! ... FULL STORY
By Jessica Zigmond September 25, 2009 Three magic words.When it comes to convincing federal lawmakers that physician-owned hospitals are good for patients —and the nation's healthcare system—maybe all physician investors need are three magic words. I came to that conclusion this week after listening to two speakers—one effective, the other less so—at the Physician Hospitals of America's 9th Annual Meeting in New Orleans. ... FULL STORY
By Joe Carlson July 29, 2009 The morning's coffee was still steaming hot in cups around the auditorium as HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius addressed a large audience of influential figures in healthcare.But this was not in Washington. It was not even Bethesda. No, on what was supposed to be the eve of the introduction of one of the most significant legislative overhauls of healthcare in a generation, more than 1,100 executives, industry leaders and hangers-on were assembled in the belly of the Marriott San Francisco. ... FULL STORY
By Shawn Rhea July 27, 2009 The most interesting information circulated at the 2009 Association for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management conference didn't originate inside one of the 69 learning labs or one of the many other sessions conducted during this year's event. It was conference participants' out-of-session grumblings and observations that provided the most intriguing glimpses into what supply chain managers are grappling with in the face of an economic downturn. ... FULL STORY
By Gregg Blesch July 02, 2009 HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius revealed something as soon as she took the podium in Washington as the first keynote speaker at the American Health Lawyers Association's annual meeting. Her presence had been engineered by one of the association's board members, Peter Pavarini, who is co-chair of the health law practice at Schottenstein Zox & Dunn in Columbus, Ohio, which happens to be the firm where Sebelius' brother, John Gilligan, is a partner and coordinator of the firm's financial services litigation. ... FULL STORY
By Shawn Rhea June 24, 2009 The anticipated benefits of a universal tracking system for medical products have long loomed grand. For about two decades now, early advocates of electronic tracking technology have painted pictures of a symbiotic global supply-chain process capable of proffering dossier-like information on the history of a bed pan should it be needed. But as the roughly 250 supply-chain executives attending the GS1 Healthcare US Conference held June 16-18 in Washington heard, arriving at that stage of information nirvana isn’t going to come without glitches. ... FULL STORY
By Melanie Evans June 22, 2009 Since the last big gathering of the Healthcare Financial Management Association one year ago, so, so much has happened. Financial markets nearly collapsed and the nation’s recession painfully worsened. Healthcare reform, one campaign issue among many in the summer of 2008, emerged as a centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s effort to dent the U.S. budget deficit. ... FULL STORY
By Joe Carlson June 17, 2009 Workers were disassembling stage props and wheeling in hulking carts of sliced lemons for lunch, but Mitch Handrich was not going to let all the activity distract him sharing his views the problems with healthcare.“I think we need to get corporations out of healthcare,” said Handrich, an R.N., attending a morning speech during the Catholic Health Association’s annual assembly, which took place in his home city at the Sheraton New Orleans. As he gave a short media interview, conference attendees were already making their way out of the room, which was being converted from a morning... ... FULL STORY
By Rebecca Vesely June 10, 2009 Who wasn’t in San Diego for the annual conference of major insurers from June 3 to June 5 seemed to carry as much significance as who was at the confab. Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America’s Health Insurance Plans and the face of the insurance lobby, was in San Diego for only a few hours on June 3, prior to opening sessions, before heading back to Washington for top-level congressional meetings on healthcare reform. Dennis Rivera, chair of the Service Employees International Union, stayed behind in Washington instead of speaking as planned on June 5. ... FULL STORY
By Melanie Evans June 03, 2009 For the volunteers who govern the nation’s hospitals and health systems, the economy’s slide and healthcare reform mean more than grappling with stressed balance sheets and looming uncertainty. Events unfolding in capital markets also underscore the necessity of highly knowledgeable boards.Hospital and system trustees, directors and chief executives who met in Kohler, Wis., from May 31 to June 2 for the annual Governance Institute Chairperson and CEO Conference heard from experts about how turmoil in capital markets and on Capitol Hill have heightened scrutiny of not-for-profit healthcare... ... FULL STORY
By Melanie Evans May 27, 2009 Vanishing cash has been a major source of anxiety for healthcare finance executives since stock markets’ gut-wrenching drop in the final months of 2008. For the nation’s weakest hospitals, the economy’s accelerated slide late last year drained already meager cash reserves and put some afoul of lending agreements. But the nation’s weakest hospitals were not in New York recently for an investor road show jointly sponsored by two healthcare trade groups and the major healthcare underwriter Citigroup. ... FULL STORY
