A century ago, a doctor’s visit meant the doctor came to you and managed everything from lumps and bumps to minimal surgical procedures. Going to the hospital happened only when all other options were exhausted. In today’s healthcare environment, with its spiraling costs and downward pressures from the Affordable Care Act, it’s no wonder the question’s been raised whether that old-fashioned approach might be updated for today’s needs. Read the article in its entirety.
To say that relationships between hospitals and physicians are sometimes difficult or even adversarial is perhaps an understatement. However, healthcare is changing in ways that make positive, productive physician-administration collaboration increasingly important for making decisions, setting direction and implementing policies. Read the white paper in its entirety.
Scratch the surface of a rural town and chances are the healthcare, employment, and community linchpin is the local hospital. However, a fundamental challenge causing many rural facilities to shut down is the lack of ready cash flow for new equipment, construction upgrades, or staff retention.
The obama administration’s announcement July 2 delaying the employer mandate provision in the federal health-care reform law shouldnt have come as surprise.
As government and private payors shift their reimbursement strategies from fee-for-service to value-based contracting, hospitals are gradually becoming more on the hook, financially, for meeting certain quality and cost targets.
Last month, the Obama administration halted new enrollment in the Pre-existing Condition Insurance Plan because of financial concerns. Industry observers knew the program would run short of funding, so the announcement was hardly a surprise. – See more at: http://managedhealthcareexecutive.modernmedicine.com/managed-healthcare-executive/news/interactive-what-we-dont-know-about-health-reform-what-we-dont-kno#sthash.3W0xozG4.dpuf
It’s no secret that hospitals have been getting much friendlier with one another lately.
Consolidation activity in the healthcare industry has been accelerating for several years, driven by changes in reimbursement, spikes in the rate of the uninsured and major shifts on the horizon in light of government health reforms. That’s led systems small and large to buddy up in partnerships ranging from simple clinical affiliations to corporate mergers and sales. But, one type of transaction may be picking up in popularity: non-profit hospitals and health systems partnering with private equity firms.
Humans are creatures of habit — one need not look further than our daily routines in the morning to confirm this.
When one looks at the healthcare market, it is clear that merger and acquisition activity among hospitals is high. However, for many hospitals considering some form of a transaction, a merger or acquisition may be a relatively foreign strategy to pursue. This is particularly true for smaller, community hospitals.
The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 created the Recovery Audit Contractor Program to reduce improper Medicare payments, and since its inception, the program has collected more than $2.5 billion in overpayments, as of August 2012.