Chelsey Ledue

Aetna announced last week that it is reducing its workforce by approximately 625 positions.

The Medical Group Management Association is warning that many physicians won't qualify for federal stimulus money if the program managing electronic health record adoption isn't properly administered.

The House of Representatives has passed, by a vote of 243 to 183, the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act, which permanently repeals a 21 percent fee reduction scheduled for January 2010 and replaces the physician payment formula with a more stable system.

Harvard researchers say an increase in the use of IT in hospitals hasn't lowered costs or made hospitals more efficient.

A proposed increase in subsidies for unemployed Americans in the COBRA program could create havoc for employers and those charged with administering the program.

Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth, N.J., has agreed to pay $3.02 million, plus interest, to settle Medicare fraud charges filed by the Justice Department.

An increase in ambulatory surgery centers in Pennsylvania is placing pressure on the state’s overall healthcare use and costs, according to the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.

Six Los Angeles-based health foundations, health plans and healthcare providers are urging the University of California Regents to re-open the Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

The healthcare retail clinic market has grown approximately 15 percent in the past two years, according to the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services paid out more than $92 million to 85,000 physicians under the 2008 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative, a large boost from the $36 million doled out in 2007.