Mayo Clinic Seeks To Extend Its Reach With Series Of Affiliations Around The Country
The Department of Health and Human Services is making it official. It will delay for one year the implementation of ICD-10 code sets that classify medical diagnoses and procedures. The final rule, announced Friday delays ICD-10 implementation to Oct. 1, 2014 from Oct. 1, 2013.
Despite Democrats’ Warnings, Private Medicare Plans Find Success
Affordable Care Act driving health care mergers
Hospitals Look To Become Insurers, As Well As Providers Of Care
LabCorp Seen Luring Buyout Before Health-Care Revamp
Final MU Stage 2 Rules Released
For physicians, data sharing with the government is becoming essential and will impact how they get paid, receive bonuses or are penalized. While the data collection process is crucial, Niall Berman, director of the CMS Office of Information Products and Analysis, concedes it’s fraught with uncertainty among providers
Meeting Stage 1 standards for Meaningful Use of electronic health records (EHRs) can help hospitals achieve measurable gains in quality of care, but higher levels of functionality might actually lead to worse clinical outcomes, a new study from Dartmouth College suggests.
Roper Industries, Inc. today announced that it has completed its previously announced acquisition of Sunquest Information Systems for approximately $1.415 billion
Nearly one in four of those polled in the 2012 Open Enrollment Survey of the Aflac WorkForces Report say they chose the wrong level of insurance coverage, or benefit options they didn’t need.
The Republican chairman of a House of Representatives investigatory panel sought documents on Wednesday from the Internal Revenue Service in a battle with the White House over the Democrats’ controversial healthcare law.
Royal Philips Electronics NV will start selling a robot-assisted medical system to treat obstructed coronary arteries as it seeks to advance its lead in the booming market for image-guided intervention therapy
The American Hospital Association has asked Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, for clarification on Medicaid expansion.
The four-year project will be administered by the Medicare agency’s Innovation Center, a creation of the 2010 healthcare law that seeks to reduce costs and improve healthcare delivery.
If we must ration our care to hold down costs in the future, how can we do it in a fair, efficient and transparent way?
A U.S. health panel may soon make HIV testing as standard a practice as checking cholesterol levels, a move that would fundamentally change how the virus is detected and treated
Health IT’s Next Big Challenge: Comparative Effectiveness Research
Under Ohio’s new approach, almost 10 percent of the Medicaid payments to nursing homes will depend on factors including residents’ satisfaction, rates of medical complications and the number of nurses on staff.
Leica Biosystems announced that an affiliate has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Aperio, a leading provider of ePathology solutions.
Lumosity, the leader in online brain training, today announced that it has raised $31.5 million in Series D financing.
Now that the smoke has cleared from the U.S. Supreme Court’s June ruling on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, what’s the upshot for financial leaders? It appears the only thing healthcare CFOs can count on is that they will have to slash costs.
Bolder Capital announced today that it has recently completed the acquisition of Monti Eligibility and Denial Solutions, Inc. and the Monti Group, Inc., collectively called MEDS . MEDS is an outsourced provider of patient eligibility, enrollment and revenue recovery services to hospitals and health systems.
Consumer goods maker Church & Dwight Co Inc will buy privately held Avid Health for $650 million in cash to take advantage of the growing nutritional supplement market.
With takeovers of managed care providers exceeding $14 billion in less than a year, Health Net Inc. and WellCare Health Plans Inc. are among the last remaining targets as aging baby boomers and the new health-care law boost demand.
Insight Imaging, Inc. (“Insight”), based in Lake Forest, CA, and Center for Diagnostic Imaging, Inc. (“CDI”), based in Minneapolis, MN, two of the nation’s leading imaging providers, today announced plans to combine.
The average per capita cost of healthcare services grew at more than three times the rate of overall inflation for the 12-month period that ended in June
Health insurer Aetna Inc said on Monday that it would buy rival Coventry Health Care Inc for $5.6 billion to increase its share of the fast-growing, U.S. government-backed Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Before long, your doctor may be telling you to download two apps and call her in the morning.
In a battle to see who will pick up the cost of expanding Medicaid, hospitals are playing tug of war with financially distressed states that have chosen to opt out of the program.
Testing What We Think We Know
Regardless of what happens with health care reform and other developments, the health care business model is changing. Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are fundamentally changing the way health care is delivered
New poll finds Medicare more important to voters than healthcare reform law
Add “upcoding” to the long list of perverse incentives created by fee-for-service medicine that are undermining efforts at controlling health care costs in this country
Clinics located in drug stores, supermarket and retail stores are attracting a rapidly growing number of patients, according to a new study released Wednesday by research group the RAND Corporation.
The rising tide of electronic health records (EHRs) in hospitals is lifting many other boats, ranging from clinical analytics apps to private health information exchanges. Another beneficiary is medical device integration (MDI) software, which connects medical device data output to EHRs
WellPoint Viewed Worst by Hospitals as UnitedHealth Improves
Prominent pharmacies such as CVS Caremark and Walgreens will promote the healthcare reform law’s benefits for seniors, federal health officials announced.
Streamline Health Announces the Acquisition of Meta Health Technology
The demand for health care under ObamaCare will increase dramatically. The supply of physicians won’t. Get ready for a two-tier system of medical care.
TeamHealth Holdings Inc. today announced the acquisition of the operations of Delphi Healthcare Partners. Delphi Healthcare Partners, Inc. is the largest provider of outsourced Orthopedic, OB/GYN and General Surgery Hospitalist programs in the United States.
Medicare’s new crackdown on readmissions will hit hospitals that treat large numbers of low-income patients especially hard, a Kaiser Health News analysis shows.
Profits at the health care industry giant HCA, which controls 163 hospitals from New Hampshire to California, have soared, far outpacing those of most of its competitors.
Ryan’s current plan offers a “premium support” alternative, where seniors would be granted a certain amount of money to use for Medicare, which would continue in its present form, or for alternative programs.
U.S. buyout fund Carlyle Group said on Wednesday it has acquired a 13.5 percent stake in Meinian Onehealth Healthcare Group Co Ltd, placing a bet on rising spending on preventive healthcare from China’s growing middle class
Medicare has moved to the center of this year’s presidential campaign for a single overriding reason: shrinking the nation’s long-term government deficit demands dealing with health care costs
The debate continues to rage: Are meaningful use requirements too specific or too vague? On target or wide of the mark?
A new study indicates 12 states have an obesity rate higher than 30 percent.
Half of EHR systems sold to physician practices are now replacements, up from 30% last year, according to a recent study by research firm KLAS.
Former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson, co-chairman of President Barack Obama’s fiscal commission, said escalating Medicare costs stand to squeeze out the rest of domestic government spending.
The Obama administration this week will try to encourage reluctant U.S. states to move forward with health insurance exchanges amid fears that time is running out
Consumer groups on Monday said state and federal regulators should move quickly to set rules to protect Americans from health insurance premium “rate shocks” and to prevent insurers from charging far higher rates in low income areas
Medicare To Penalize 2,211 Hospitals For Excess Readmissions
Opponents of the law say they won’t set up new private health insurance markets called exchanges. But increasingly, it’s looking as though Washington will just do it for them.
Demand for home health care workers is soaring as baby boomers — the 78 million Americans born between 1946 and 1964 — get older and states try to save money by moving people out of more costly nursing homes.
Democrats in Congress and advocates for low-income people say coverage may be unaffordable for millions of Americans because of a cramped reading of the law
Although animals have been critical in driving healthcare innovation, simulators have grown increasingly sophisticated
Nestle, the Swiss maker of Nescafe coffee and KitKat, said it’s looking for acquisitions to strengthen its health-science range for chronic diseases and brain health.
Hackers Encrypt Health Records and Hold Data for Ransom
Medicare Seeks To Cut Number Of Seniors Denied Nursing Home Coverage After Hospital Stays
Investors in U.S. hospital companies can expect more scrutiny of billing practices and the medical need for expensive treatments as the federal government faces greater pressure to recoup billions in fraudulent claims
The federal announcement this week that states may choose to expand their Medicaid programs to 138% of the federal poverty level for some period of time, and then later drop out, could provoke some states deeply opposed or on the fence to reconsider.
Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance, the most common type in the U.S., rose an average of 9 percent for family plans in 2011
Cigna is doubling down on its commercial ACO strategy. The insurer has accelerated the development of its collaborative accountable care (CAC) program. The CAC is Cigna’s variation on the accountable care organizations (ACO) created as part of federal healthcare reform.
More than 70% of large employers will cover weight-loss surgery in 2013 — a rate similar to past years, according to a survey by the National Business Group on Health.
Employers in retail and hospitality expect the sharpest increases in health plan costs due to the healthcare law, according to a new survey.
Obama’s health-care law: The fitness and wellness provisions you may have missed
Care.com Raises $50 Million In e-Round Financing Led By Institutional Venture Partners
Now that all user-facing technology is going mobile, the demands of wireless networking and the demand for every provider to have an “mHealth” strategy mean more infrastructure, more planning, and more cost when crafting a telemedicine strategy.
Governor Rick Scott is one of a handful of national Republicans threatening not to expand Medicaid eligibility under President Obama’s health law. How the dance with Washington could play out
Virtual office visits and virtual rounding have been shown to lower healthcare costs by reducing avoidable hospital admissions and providing regular access to care in remote parts of states
Hospital Chain Inquiry Cited Unnecessary Cardiac Work
About one in three doctors across the country doesn’t accept new patients who are covered by Medicaid
Obama administration officials are getting ready to set up and operate new health insurance markets in about half the states, where local officials appear unwilling or unable to do so.
Under pressure to squeeze out costs, some of the U.S.’s biggest health insurers are quietly erecting more hurdles for patients seeking medical care. The companies are in many cases reaching back to the 1990s and boosting the use of techniques that antagonized patients and doctors alike.
Outsourcing, an established but fairly static practice in the U.S. health care industry, may grow in scope as the country experiences major shifts in health care delivery.
Doctors Will Have To Figure Out Who Gets ‘No-Cost’ Birth Control
Doctors charge their patients an annual fee and in turn give them more time and attention.
Masimo Enters Noninvasive Multigas Monitoring, including Capnography, with Acquisition of PHASEIN
Haemonetics Completes Acquisition of Pall’s Transfusion Medicine Business
CBO: Delays in SGR Cuts to Cost $271 Billion
App-Happy Health Care Full of Optimism, Money
The law requires employers to begin including contraception and other women’s services in workers’ insurance plans without charging employees co-payments AND distribute millions of dollars in insurance-company refunds to workers whose plans spent a high percentage of their premium dollars on administrative expenses.
In the 1980s, most clinical trials took place at universities and other academic institutions. By 2005, more than 70 percent of U.S. clinical trials were being done by nonacademic physicians. In fact, the number of private-sector physicians involved in these studies climbed from 4,000 in 1990 to a staggering 20,250 in 2010.
Remote monitoring of intensive care patients can cost hospitals anywhere from $50,000 to $100,000 per bed in the first year of operation – whether this investment pays off in the long run by improving ICU patients’ care and saving money is still unknown.
A private equity consortium is aiming to scoop-up lab-testing company, Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings in a huge leveraged buyout
Beginning today, most new and renewing health insurance plans must begin offering a broad array of women’s preventive health services, most notably coverage of birth control, at no upfront cost.
RFID tags help University of Maryland Medical Center track emergency drugs – Technology attached to crash cart drugs helps reduce errors
Vita Advisors, LLC is a research-based strategic advisory firm serving the health care industry.
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