Paul Cerrato

MRI machines need the liquid form of the gas to cool an MRI's superconducting magnets to keep it running.

Between 1980 and 2009, healthcare expenditures grew by 7.4 percent, which most economists agree would bankrupt the nation if continued. But a closer look at the statistics reveals that the last 10 years in that period saw only a 5.9 percent increase, and the spending growth from 2009 to 2011 dropped to 3.1 percent.

Not-for-profit hospitals are feeling the pinch as their pension plans take a bigger bite out of their budget. The culprit, according to a recent Standard and Poor's report, is low discount rates, which have eroded the funding status of defined benefit (DB) plans in 2012.

With hospitals nationwide feeling the burden of Medicare penalties for avoidable 30-day readmissions, C-suite managers have been frantically searching for ways to pinpoint these high-risk patients early on. A recent analysis suggests a low-cost and simple scorecard that detects one out of four of these patients.

Healthcare spending in the U.S. is out of control and part of the reason for the approaching train wreck is that decision makers place too much trust in people's ability to think rationally. At least that’s the conclusion of a recent analysis in Health Affairs. Part of the solution, according to the report, rests in a deeper understanding of behavioral economics.

A recent survey indicates that federal IT officials think big data analytics will save money and spare patients' lives.

Among the least popular decisions handed down by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in recent years, it’s hard to top the rule requiring hospitals to rein in readmission rates or suffer the financial consequences. As most CFOs are painfully aware, those consequences include substantial reductions in reimbursements.

As mobile health gains ground as a way to improve population health and curb healthcare costs, models for making mHealth financially sustainable are topmost in the minds of stakeholders in the U.S. and across the globe.

As hospitals continue to struggle with operational costs, some are now looking to clamp down on food waste to stem the tide. Providers are addressing the issue with a combination of electronic tracking, composting and forecasting.

With no federal rules telling providers how they can spend their meaningful use incentive checks, hospitals and practices have their options wide open. While many are investing in more technology, that's only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.