Jeff Lagasse

New patient pavilion includes trauma center with 66 patient rooms, modernized operating suites, critical care unit and helipad, system says.

Pending law allows taxpayers to apply for a state income tax credit for donations to these struggling facilities.

TeamHealth now has oversight of more than 19,000 affiliated physicians and advanced practice clinicians.

Project will increase single rooms available to patients, new surgical, treatment areas that "conform to 21st century standards."

After addressing inefficiencies in three common procedures, patients care improved and costs fell by up to 11 percent, results showed.

Flooding in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, leads agency to propose a rule to establish a more coordinated response to natural and man-made disasters.

Payments to outpatient care centers saw the most growth.

Medicare already plans to stop paying certain hospital-owned physician practices at higher rates than those that are independently owned.

Between 1991 and 2006, more than 617,000 hospitalizations related to three common "premise plumbing pathogens" resulted in around $9 billion in Medicare payments -- an average of $600 million a year.

A higher chargemaster price can increase the payment from private insurers, which often pay for outpatient and ancillary services based on discounted chargemaster prices.