Strategic Planning

The study sought to measure whether having access to such a tool, and with it more price information, was associated with a reduction in annual outpatient spending in the first 12 months after the tool was introduced.

Pamela Peele knows that people who subscribe to cooking magazines have a much higher risk of going to the emergency room. But how she knows that is a whole other story.

Instead of slashing jobs to cut costs and increase profits, hospitals should focus on delivering high-quality customer experiences to widen their margins. That's the word from a new study released by Accenture, which shows that hospitals who delivered superior customer experiences increased their net margins by 50 percent over average-performing facilities.

The vice president took to the stage at Health Datapalooza not just to share his own experiences, but to put out a call to action: While the government has taken great strides to increase access to technology-enabled healthcare, it's still not enough, he said.

Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan is poised to become the latest proton therapy center in the United States having recently scored a Proteus One Gantry system that precisely directs cancer-killing proton beams at tumors.

Just because it's hard to achieve a payer mix that better supports a health system's bottom line, it's not impossible.

The implementation of MACRA and the introduction of the Quality Payment Program is "flexible common-sense approach" for paying physicians, acting Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Andy Slavitt said at the American Hospital Association's annual membership meeting this week, though the government is actively seeking feedback on the new program.

The advent of population health presents challenges and opportunities to payers.

A new study by the CVS Health Research Institute found that home infusion care is safe, clinically effective and improves quality of life; and when it's compared to infusion care delivered in a hospital or clinic, it may also reduce healthcare costs.

Major for-profit hospital chain Universal Health Services on Tuesday announced plans to buy out a minority interest in six of its Las Vegas acute care hospitals currently held by a third party.