Capital Finance

Any patient will tell you that a good bedside manner is just as important as solid medical credentials. As far as Dr. Hubert Fu is concerned, that extends as much to the practice of debt collection as it does to the practice of medicine and that's why he started Debt M.D.

Care coordination initiatives -- whether they're paper-based or digital -- have the potential to significantly reduce the nation's healthcare bill.

With some healthcare providers now into their second year of meaningful use reporting, Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record payments were estimated at $12.3 billion paid to a total of 219,000 physicians and hospitals through February since the program's inception.

Healthcare reform and financial and operational pressures will shape how hospitals and systems define and act on ambulatory care unit (ACU) strategies, according to a report from Jones Lang LaSalle.

As doctors weigh whether to stay in their practices or become employed in a group practice or at a hospital, they're increasingly looking to alternative business models in order to remain - and thrive.

During the second month of 2013, the healthcare industry continued its long trend of adding jobs, gaining 32,000, according to the employment numbers released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics Friday morning.

The charts said it all -- high levels of quality improvement coupled with significant savings as Hawai'i Pacific Health changed the way it provided care and started tracking gains on both the clinical side and the financial side.

In an education session Monday at HIMSS13 titled "How Hospitals Improve Their Bottom Line and Improve Relationships with Uninsureds," two people on the front lines showcased an innovative, IT-enabled approach to "transition from seeing these patients as a burden," and toward a way to better engage them in financing their care.

Women in a number of counties located primarily in the South and West have higher mortality rates than those in other regions, and the reasons extend beyond access to medical care, according to research published in the March issue of Health Affairs.

Despite the federal government's efforts to foster pricing transparency at hospitals, a new study finds that many hospitals can't provide a price for a common surgical procedure.