Some of the leading health reform schemes being floated to solve the health coverage crisis--including the proposal advanced by Sen. John McCain--assume that individuals can benefit more by shopping for their health insurance on the open market than relying on employer policies. However, a new study suggests that it could [...]

At a time when access to primary healthcare is proving increasingly important--especially for hospitals that want to avoid needless emergency department trips--it's probably looking like good news to most providers that the Bush Administration has refunded federal community health centers, rural healthcare service outreach grants and the National Health Services [...]

As part of their campaign to intensify hospitals' efforts to prevent infections, a number of healthcare groups have endorsed a number of safety and hygiene recommendations. The practices addressed include the removal of catheters, washing hands and hygiene maintenance for intensive care patients. The recommendations aren't groundbreaking--similar suggestions have been [...]

A new study has concluded that many of the costly procedures used frequently in inpatient hospitalizations for childbirth may be adding costs without contributing much benefit. The study, from the Milbank Memorial Fund, Childbirth Connection and the Reforming States Group of government health policy officials, found that of the $86 [...]

A new bill working its way through the Pennsylvania legislature would ban the state's hospitals, ambulatory surgery centers and long-term-care providers from demanding nurses and other clinical workers to work overtime. The bill, which has passed both chambers of the state's legislature, includes clinical workers who aren't considered supervisors in [...]

In theory, the changes CMS is making to its network of reimbursement contractor firms were supposed to make things easier for doctors. The agency is in the process of replacing a ragtag group of fiscal intermediaries and Medicare carriers with "Medicare administrative contractors" (MACs) serving 15 jurisdictions across the country. Ultimately, [...]

A Minnesota health plan has become another in the growing list of providers and insurers to put health services pricing information online. Bloomington, MN-based HealthPartners, a non-profit HMO serving more than one million medical and dental plan members, has launched a web tool offering prices for 83 procedures at its network primary [...]

In what is becoming an annual ritual for many hospitals around the country, the Colorado Hospital Association has announced what it spent on uncompensated care for for the first six months of this year. CHA reported that uncompensated care climbed to $796 million in the first six months of 2008, [...]

Hospitals and medical groups continued to add to their employee rolls last month, unlike many companies in other sectors of the troubled U.S. economy. Hospital employment grew 0.1 percent in September, and physician offices 0.2 percent, while both saw approximately 3 percent gains for the 12 months ending last month. Article[...]

A high-profile Emory University psychiatrist has been accused of failing to report one-third of the $2.8 million in consulting fees he received from companies whose drugs he was evaluating, according to Congressional investigators. The psychiatrist, Dr. Charles Nemeroff, got the money from GlaxoSmithKline between 2000 and 2007, while he was [...]

In Massachusetts, health planners are being reminded that it's not so easy to change consumer health behavior, even if you give consumers health insurance. Roughly two years after the enactment of a 2006 law requiring virtually every citizen to have health coverage, thousands of newly-insured state residents are still relying on hospital [...]

You know, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that if nobody's watching too closely, hospitals have a major incentive to under-report the number of infections that take place within their facilities. But it doesn't hurt to have an official watchdog like the Government Accountability Office document the extent [...]

Over the last nine years, the quality of care delivered to patients enrolled in health plans submitting data to the National Committee for Quality Assurance has continued to improve, though federal payers are lagging behind, according to a new NCQA report. The NCQA accredits and measures health plans using a list [...]

Palliative care, which focuses on improving the quality of life for patients with serious illnesses, was first recognized as a specialty in Great Britain in the late 1980s. Since then, the discipline has matured and become a widely-recognized approach for treating certain patients. Now, a researcher has issued a report card rating the [...]

Now here's a situation no hospital administrator wants to face: This week, a judge ordered a San Fernando Valley hospital to halt construction on its $180-million expansion until the Los Angeles City Council decides whether more environmental review is needed. The order, which comes as the result of requests by a [...]

As will some of you, I'll be attending the upcoming Medical Group Management Meeting this October 19th through the 22nd in San Diego. Those who have attended the show know that it's big, busy and well-attended. I expect to learn a great deal, and along the way I'll be sharing [...]

As hospitals continue to battle rogue infections like MRSA and C. diff, which continue to pose substantial threats of their own, another threat is emerging that poses a threat to the sickest patients in their populations. While most infection-control efforts have been focused on gram-positive organisms like MRSA, which may still [...]

The agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has awarded a $3 million contract to an American Hospital Association Affiliate to implemented a three-year program designed to slash central-line-associated bloodstream infection rates in intensive-care units. The infection-reduction program was designed by Johns Hopkins University researchers, and first implemented in some Michigan [...]

Not too long ago, New York legislators created a firestorm when they approved a plan to restructure the state's healthcare industry by force. The state is still experiencing fallout from the plan, which involved a range of measures including nursing home and hospital closures, mergers and restructuring. Several facilities sued, but many [...]

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a new law that imposes tougher penalties for violations of patient privacy as well as for serious medical errors. Under the terms of the bill, the state will create an Office of Health Information Integrity, whose job will be to to assess penalties against individuals who [...]

Unfortunately, when you have as high a profile as Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center does, scrutiny and public challenges go with the territory. That has definitely been the case when it comes to the facility's relationship with the SEIU, which has been fairly vocal in its criticism of the [...]

According to new research by insurance firm Aon Corp., hospital-acquired conditions accounted for 12.2 percent of total legal liability costs insured by healthcare facilities in 2007. While many studies have looked at the additional medical costs generated by never events, this research is among the first to actually pin down indirect [...]

Pharmacy chain store giant Walgreens has agreed to pay the U.S. and four additional states, $9.9 million to resolve allegations that it falsely billed the Medicaid program. According to the allegations, Walgreen's submitted claims to Medicaid agencies in four states for prescriptions dispensed to persons with both Medicaid and private third-party [...]

As everyone knows, nursing is an extremely stressful profession, both physically and emotionally--a problem only made worse by chronic staff shortages. These stresses are part of the reason so many nurses are retiring at relatively early ages, deciding that they can no longer tolerate going through the ringer year after [...]

Transferring care of a hospitalized patient from one resident to another frequently causes harm to that patient, including some serious problems, according to new research. The study, which was published in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, strengthens the conclusions of several previous studies suggesting that handoffs contribute [...]