Strategic Planning

In a region brimming with high-ranked hospitals but still suffering from poor care coordination, four health systems are initiating a new joint venture to find efficiencies and lure payer partners.

Hospitals of all sizes are looking for partners. But the quest to increase market share by acquiring physician groups or other hospitals is drawing critical analysis from regulators, particularly if a merger results in eliminating a competitor.

Last week's ruling in the case of ProMedica Health System vs. the Federal Trade Commission offers key lessons for CFOs about how hospitals and health systems should proceed with mergers or acquisitions.

Physicians shouldn't feel threatened by the continued popularity of retail clinics with consumers, but neither should they ignore them.

Michigan-based Metro Health has been able to set itself apart from other community hospital systems in part by its ability to access and leverage capital. Metro's success offers a template for best practices in capital acquisition through strategies such as public issuance of debts and securities.

The growing ranks of adults helping their aging and ill parents, relatives and friends is a business opportunity that health insurer Highmark is not passing up.

New entrants in the healthcare market could snatch billions of dollars of revenue from traditional healthcare companies if the traditional companies do not move faster to provide services in the setting consumers want.

Catholic Health Initiatives' long-term transformation strategy has a bit of the expected -- IT investment -- and the unexpected -- the creation of an insurance business.

Traditional continuing care retirement communities are looking for business opportunities to expand into home care. One option is a Continuing Care at Home program.

When MedPAC recommended to Congress in March that readmission penalties similar to those imposed on hospitals be applied to home healthcare organizations, the home health industry didn’t balk because it has already been working toward reducing readmissions.