Jeff Lagasse

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.

By 2015, uninsured rates in the state were down to 2.5 percent, compared to 9.1 percent nationwide.

While the pharmaceutical industry has historically interacted with patients through clinical trials and marketing efforts, those types of engagement may no longer be enough.

Younger physicians tend to prefer larger practices, while older physicians in smaller practices are gradually retiring out of the workforce.

For the year, HTA has now invested more than $600 million in medical office buildings totaling 2 million square feet, almost 60 percent of which are located on hospital campuses.