Patty Enrado

Innovative programs, such as tying the payment system to the delivery system, could help bend the healthcare cost curve, according to Karen Davis, president of the Commonwealth Fund.

Regardless of whether reform legislation passes, the healthcare industry must become more efficient, a healthcare policy expert said this week.

In October, the Harris County Healthcare Alliance, in collaboration with UnitedHealthcare and Community Health Choice, launched a program to offer healthcare benefits to uninsured employees of small businesses in the Texas county.

Blue Shield of California and network hospitals that have deployed its Partnership in Operations Excellence and Transparency (POET) have seen a reduction in administrative costs.

Retail health clinics were a disruptive threat to payers and providers when they first appeared in mid-2000.

Healthcare reform is trying to address the expansion of, and greater access to, healthcare services. But experts say adding demand to an industry that already faces a growing primary care shortage, requires new delivery models.

The healthcare industry has been somewhat immune to the economic recession compared to other hard-hit industries, but a new survey reveals that healthcare organizations are battling low employee morale.

With 100,000 nursing positions currently unfilled and the shortage expected to climb to 340,000 nurses by 2020, healthcare systems need a strategy to reduce nurse turnover.

Medical and nursing schools should collaborate and evolve their curricula to promote team-based care, according to stakeholders at a summit sponsored by the New England Healthcare Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.