News

Hospitals are increasingly adding retail clinics to their array of services because they can help to reduce some costs. A recent national study by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) found that the proportion of retail clinics owned by hospital systems doubled (from 9 percent to 18 percent) between 2007 and 2010.

Consumers are not alone in finding retail clinics an attractive option. Increasingly, hospitals are adding them to their array of services.

Physicians across a number of specialties are taking the lead to test developing new payment and delivery models. A few of them described their projects at a Brookings Institution forum on physician payment reform.

Physicians across a number of specialties are taking the lead to test developing new payment and delivery models. But they need more support from commercial and public payers to make them more widely adopted.

UnitedHealthcare is making available an online and mobile cost and quality estimator tool for inpatient medical services, including for knee replacement, spinal surgery and childbirth.

Some 5,800 physicians at Anthem Blue Cross of California are being notified that their Social Security or tax identification numbers were posted online by mistake.

A new study suggests educating doctors via real-time price comparison is a potentially effective tool in the effort to control costs.

To be successful, a hospital must acquire physician practices able to work in a world that is essentially foreign to what they are used to. The 'new normal' is based on value, outcomes and patient satisfaction.

Medicare could benefit with improved care and savings if seniors could access healthcare services online, according to a study that found that increasingly more tech savvy older consumers are interested in using digital health tools in their home.

Our weekly look at career moves in the healthcare finance sector. This issue highlights promotions, hires and fires for the week ending November 22, 2013.