By Modern Healthcare | February 04, 2012
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RENTON, Wash.—Providence Health & Services will combine its western Washington operations with Swedish Health Services, Seattle. Under an affiliation agreement executed Jan. 26, the names for the two groups will remain the same, and Providence will remain Catholic while Swedish will remain secular. FULL STORY »
By Andis Robeznieks | January 28, 2012
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Negotiations are just getting started on one multisystem business arrangement in Colorado, while an announcement about another deal involving the same players is expected shortly. FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | January 21, 2012
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ROSWELL, N.M.—Lovelace Health System, Albuquerque, N.M., part of for-profit chain Ardent Health Services, Nashville, announced it signed a letter of intent to purchase 26-bed, for-profit Roswell Regional Hospital. FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | January 14, 2012
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ROSWELL, N.M.—Community Health Systems, Franklin, Tenn., withdrew its interest in buying the hospital in Roswell that it doesn't already own after receiving word that the increasingly vigilant Federal Trade Commission planned an extensive review of the transaction. FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | January 09, 2012
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SACRAMENTO, Calif.—The UC Davis Health System recently signed a telehealth research collaboration agreement with the Mexican state of Sinaloa. FULL STORY »
By Joe Carlson | January 02, 2012
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A federal judge in California has taken the extraordinary step of blocking sizable reductions in Medicaid rates to the state's hospital-based skilled-nursing units, concluding that state and federal officials likely relied on unreasonable projections and faulty reasoning about how the cuts would affect frail patients. FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | December 19, 2011
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MIRA MESA, Calif.—Scripps Health hired Lei Dong as chief medical physicist for a proton therapy center under construction and on track to begin treating patients in spring 2013. FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | December 12, 2011
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SPOKANE, Wash.—IPC the Hospitalist Co., the hospitalist physician group based in North Hollywood, Calif., has acquired Hospital Specialists of Spokane, Wash. FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | November 28, 2011
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PHOENIX—Banner Health and insurer Aetna, Hartford, Conn., will begin in January to enroll small employers into a health plan for a newly created accountable care organization. FULL STORY »
By Vince Galloro | November 21, 2011
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Prime Healthcare Services has long responded to the Service Employees International Union in much stronger and more public ways than its fellow hospital operators in California. The hospital chain now has moved the feud to federal court, filing an antitrust lawsuit alleging that the union and Kaiser Permanente have colluded to restrain trade in the markets for emergency and other acute-care services and for healthcare labor in four California counties, according to the lawsuit. FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | November 21, 2011
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RIO RANCHO, N.M.—Presbyterian Rust Medical Center opened Oct. 22 with Gov. Susana Martinez, Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) and Rio Rancho Mayor Thomas Swisstack in attendance at a ribbon-cutting ceremony, according to a news release from the medical center, which is part of Presbyterian Healthcare Services, Albuquerque. FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | October 24, 2011
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SACRAMENTO, Calif.—The California Medical Association adopted a policy calling for the legalization of marijuana in order to conduct better research on its medicinal uses as well to better regulate its purity and to collect taxes on its sales to finance regulatory, enforcement and education activities. The policy is based on a white paper written by an advisory committee dedicated to the matter, which found that “the public movement toward legalization of medical cannabis has inappropriately placed physicians in the role of gatekeeper for public access” and that... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | October 17, 2011
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KINGMAN, Ariz.—Kingman Regional Medical Center is the second hospital to join the Mayo Clinic Care Network, a formal collaboration that connects hospitals to the Rochester, Minn., clinic's physicians and best practices. Hospitals in the network pay a fee in order to be publicly affiliated with Mayo and receive access to Mayo's internal knowledge base, although the fee structure was not disclosed when the network was announced last month. The affiliation also allows member hospitals to consult with Mayo physicians for specific patients. The network is similar to an affiliation... FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | October 10, 2011
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OLYMPIA, Wash.—The Washington state chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians filed a lawsuit against the Washington State Health Care Authority, seeking to stop implementation of a policy that went into effect Oct. 1 under which Medicaid pays for only three nonemergency visits a beneficiary makes to a hospital emergency department each year. According to the lawsuit, filed in Superior Court in Olympia, the policy is illegal because the agency failed to follow its own rulemaking procedure. The group asserts that the agency failed to collaborate with the state... FULL STORY »
By Vince Galloro | October 03, 2011
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The two public hearings on the proposed sale of the Colorado Health Foundation's 40% interest in the HealthOne joint venture to majority partner HCA included new demands for Colorado Attorney General John Suthers to require more guarantees regarding low-income patients and keeping HealthOne's hospitals open. FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | October 03, 2011
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VICTORVILLE, Calif.—The California attorney general's office declined to approve the sale of Victor Valley Community Hospital, Victorville, to Prime Healthcare Services Foundation, Ontario, Calif., according to a letter posted on the attorney general's website. The letter does not offer specific reasons for the decision, but reads in part: “We have concluded that this proposed sale is not in the public interest and will likely create a significant effect on the availability or accessibility of healthcare services to the affected community.” FULL STORY »
By Ashok Selvam | October 03, 2011
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The California Hospital Association blasted the California Nurses Association for invoking the death of a patient under the care of a replacement nurse in its bargaining rhetoric.“It is inappropriate and irresponsible for the California Nurses Association labor union to exploit this tragedy to further their union agenda,” CHA President and CEO C. Duane Dauner said in a statement issued Sept. 25, the day after a patient died while at 408-bed Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Oakland. FULL STORY »
By Modern Healthcare | August 01, 2011
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LAS VEGAS—Cardinal Health agreed to revive and then sell three nuclear pharmacies in the Southwest in order to resolve antitrust allegations by the Federal Trade Commission. The FTC contends that Cardinal's 2009 acquisition of Biotech harmed competition for radiopharm-aceuticals sold to hospitals and cardiology clinics in Las Vegas, El Paso, Texas and Albuquerque, N.M. After the acquisition, Dublin, Ohio-based Cardinal closed its pharmacies in those cities and moved its operations to Biotech's facilities, according to FTC documents. Competition in the market for... FULL STORY »
