Supply Chain
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will penalize hospitals for readmissions beginning this autumn. As a result, many healthcare providers are taking a cold hard look at their bottom line in an effort to meet or exceed projected targets for the year. The difficult part, of course, is that each healthcare provider has its own unique challenges. There is no "one size fits all" solution.
The use of generic prescription drugs has risen to a current rate of $1 billion every other day, saving the U.S. healthcare system more than $1 trillion over the last 10 years (2002-2011), according to a report released Thursday by the Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA).
Studies have illustrated the potential benefits of EHR adoption, such as improvement in the clinical care process and the overall patient experience. EHR implementation, however, can also have a significant impact on operational efficiencies, creating opportunities for healthcare organizations to leverage the same workflow automation capabilities to improve a number of cumbersome administrative processes to drive bottom line improvement.
During a White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) conversation on July 24, leaders in healthcare and policy discussed the Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI) to reduce the environmental footprint of hospitals, lower costs and improve overall patient health by including sustainability efforts and initiatives into their business models.
Based on venture capital funding levels, deal totals and merger and acquisition activity, global consulting firm Mercom Capital Group reports that the healthcare IT sector is experiencing its highest levels of economic bustle since 2010.
With the financial pressures that healthcare organizations are facing, many hospitals are using traditional cost cutting methods to save money by looking at layoffs and staff reductions. Many more hospitals, however, are finding ways to reduce costs through lean management methods that don't require layoffs and can improve quality for patients.
The cardiac medical device market is projected to reach a compound annual growth rate of an estimated 9 percent by 2015 in the U.S., according to a recent report from research and consultancy firm RNCOS.
As widespread drought annihilates crops and sends prices increasingly higher, supply chain managers at healthcare facilities are no doubt eyeing their budgets.
Global competition and the impending medical device tax, set to begin Jan. 1, 2013, are creating challenges for the U.S. biomedical device industry, according to a new study by tax advisory firm WTP Advisors.
A man accused of rigging hospital contract bids, defrauding the Internal Revenue Service and filing false tax returns pled guilty last week in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan.