News

As an estimated 14 million additional Americans become eligible for health insurance next year under the Affordable Care Act, recent survey data reveals that the number of doctors entering the healthcare field remains flat, and existing physicians are reducing the number of patients they are willing to service. Solutions to the shortage are urgently needed experts say.

A study containing mixed results of the effects of increased Medicaid enrollment in Oregon offers some caution about expectations for dramatic improvements in the health of millions of individuals from just expanding coverage across the nation in 2014, according to one of the authors of a recent study.

Medicaid coverage alone is no guarantee of improved health outcomes, but researchers found that expanding Medicaid in Oregon reduced depression and eliminated out-of-pocket costs for its low-income enrollees.

Federal employees with the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association's health plan will soon have access to personalized health management tools like risk assessments, online health coaching and a 24/7 nurse advice line.

The tornado that devastated Moore, Oklahoma Monday has also wrecked the community's hospital - Moore Medical Center.

Emergency departments are now responsible for half of all inpatient admissions and accounted for nearly all the increases in admissions between 2003 and 2009, according to a new report from Rand Corporation.

The Texas Supreme Court has denied an attempt by 14 hospitals to force the state Health and Human Services Commission to recalculate and repay the difference on past Medicaid claims.

A new survey finds that the country's primary care physicians generated more revenue for their affiliated hospitals than did the hospitals' specialists.

With hospitals nationwide feeling the burden of Medicare penalties for avoidable 30-day readmissions, C-suite managers have been frantically searching for ways to pinpoint these high-risk patients early on. A recent analysis suggests a low-cost and simple scorecard that detects one out of four of these patients.

Dr. Thomas Bellavia transformed his traditional medical practice in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., into a so-called medical home where patients are seen by teams of doctors and nurses. He says it has paid off in better, more coordinated care for his patients and healthier income for the nurse practitioners and physicians in his group.