News

In the June 2009 issue of Healthcare Finance News, we took a hard look at supply chain management systems in the healthcare market.

The St. Joseph Mercy Health System plans to cut 350 full-time jobs from four hospitals in Michigan as it faces a severe budget deficit.

The government could save $540 billion in healthcare costs over the next 10 years if programs and techniques that have improved healthcare quality and slowed the growth of medical spending are applied more broadly.

Humana snagged the top ranking among national payers - edging out last year's top payer, Aetna - in the fourth annual PayerView rankings published by athenahealth and the journal Physicians Practice.

Without action by Congress, the United States could expect to have 7 million more uninsured by 2010, bringing the total somewhere near 52 million, according to a new study published Thursday in Health Affairs.

Delays in the diagnosis and treatment of insomnia translates to at least $42 billion in direct and indirect healthcare costs each year.

The economic downturn is taking a toll on employees' physical and mental health, causing more than one in four to forego healthcare treatment to save money, according to a new survey commissioned by the National Business Group on Health.

Take heed, hospital administrators - Uncle Sam is watching. Because the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is getting pickier about what it pays for in the acute care setting, the agency is looking inside the hospital to find claim denials.

Emdeon is taking on the dark side of healthcare finance. The Nashville-based provider of revenue and payment cycle solutions is targeting the billions of dollars lost each year in healthcare fraud by acquiring The Sentinel Group, a developer of data analytics solutions and technology designed to ferret out healthcare fraud and abuses.