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While most healthcare organizations are anxious to see what changes to the system healthcare reform will bring, executives at urban and safety-net hospitals are most concerned about the looming Medicare and Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payment cuts and the challenges these cuts will bring.

Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Rick Langfelder at Lutheran Medical Center, a 462-bed hospital located in Brooklyn, N.Y., spoke recently with Healthcare Finance News Associate Editor Kelsey Brimmer regarding the most pressing financial issues that many hospitals located in urban areas of the U.S. have been facing over the last few years and what is to come for them.

During a White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) conversation in July, leaders in healthcare and policy discussed the Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI) to reduce the environmental footprint of hospitals, lower costs and improve overall patient health by way of including sustainability efforts and initiatives into their business models.

Marie Freire, PhD President The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health Bethesda, Md.

Healthcare organizations that have maximized the value of revenue cycle management can find additional ways to reduce costs and enhance efficiencies by looking at one of the biggest items on the balance sheet: real estate. Efficiencies in facility operations can improve profitability and enhance patient care, the core mission of the provider.

Many think of the contract management group as playing an administrative role within any organization. However, a structured and efficient contract management process can serve as the backbone to other processes such as business development and financial management. An effective contract management process is now essential to building an organization’s corporate strategy and ultimate vision. Organizations that have a successful process in place have a clear competitive advantage over others that do not.

As a full-time consumer and part-time conspiracy theorist, I’ve often wondered how meaningful an FDA approval really is. How much trust can I place in their endorsement of the products I buy and the foods I eat?

A three-judge federal court in Boston rejected the state of Maine's request for an expedited review of its Medicaid waiver application, Thursday, saying "the facts do no warrant" the need for a fast review.

Just when it seemed the presidential political debate surrounding healthcare would simply be whether to repeal or preserve the Affordable Care Act, Mitt Romney brought Paul Ryan into the mix as his pick for VP.

The use of generic prescription drugs has risen to a current rate of $1 billion every other day, saving the U.S. healthcare system more than $1 trillion over the last 10 years (2002-2011), according to a report released Aug. 2 by the Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA).