News
State health officials searching for solutions to Texas’ multibillion-dollar budget shortfall have set their sights on neonatal intensive care units, which they say are being overbuilt and overused by hospitals eager to profit from the high-cost care.
The number of veterans receiving VA healthcare and benefits now stands at a record 8.4 million and is projected to hit 8.6 million by 2012, according to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.
Three hospitals on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula are seeking an affiliation with Seattle-based Swedish Medical Center – an alliance that would allow the smaller hospitals to send patients to Swedish for specialized treatment.
Rather than focusing on new construction, health systems are renovating or expanding, according to a survey conducted by Health Facilities Management magazine and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of physicians are scammed by their own patients every year.
With the federal government’s Recovery Audit Contractor program in full swing, and the changes wrought by healthcare reform promising more audits on the horizon, hospital executives are all but certain that compliance budgets will need to rise in coming years.
Just about everyone agrees that the way we pay for primary care needs fixing. Under the current insurance model, doctors get paid for procedures and tests rather than for time spent with patients, which makes doctors and patients alike unhappy and increases costs.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is calling for a one percent pay increase for physicians.
Facing continued public outcry and pressure from the California Department of Insurance, two of the state's largest health insurers have scaled back or eliminated their plans to raise rates in 2011.
Accountable care organizations may be the future of the healthcare delivery system, but disagreement exists about the economic impact on providers.