Henry Powderly
Will it be an 'all-hands-on-deck' day, or will you be prepared in advance?
Analysts mostly agree that this year will be full of healthcare acquisitions as health systems, information technology companies, software firms, medical practices and service providers seek to find out whether bigger is indeed better in the post-Affordable Care Act world.
Mayo Clinic picked Epic for revenue cycle, President Obama floated predictive medicine at the State of the Union, Arkansas planned to extend its private option and the Sustainable Growth rate saw its day on The Hill.
While healthcare did not take up too much of Pres. Barack Obama's State of the Union speech on Tuesday, the commander in chief did make sure to tout his initiatives and throw out some new ideas for the field.
Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Erlanger Health System on Tuesday said it earned a record $12.7 million profit in its fiscal second quarter, its highest in 30 years and its first profit after posting consecutive losses in the past three years.
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has recommended a 3.5 percent increase in the rates paid for inpatient and outpatient hospital procedures in 2016. The group also wants to level the field between what is paid to hospitals and physician offices.
You can expect more credit downgrades than upgrades in 2015 among the country's nonprofit hospitals, Standard & Poor's announced this week, as expensive upgrades and pressures to convert to value-based payment systems continue to gnaw away at bottom lines.
Strategic growth through consolidation, optimizing care by finding ways to become more efficient providers make experts' list of healthcare issues to watch in 2015.
Hundreds of healthcare workers at California's Kaiser Permanente facilities walked off the job this week, striking over a lack of staffing by the hospital operator that they say is affecting care for mentally ill patients.
Trinity Health is set to expand its risk-based care operations, announcing last week that it will partner with Heritage Provider Network to form accountable care networks linking Trinity’s 86 hospitals with the 37,000 physicians in league with Heritage.