Rene Letourneau
Banner Health, one of the largest nonprofit hospital systems in the country, cut $41.5 million from its supply chain costs in 2011. Doug Bowen, Banner’s vice president of supply chain management, spoke recently with Healthcare Finance News Editor René Letourneau about how they achieved such big results in just one year.
The labor force is the largest cost center in the healthcare industry, and organizations are always looking for ways to manage it more effectively and efficiently.
Results of a national healthcare industry survey revealed that 60 percent of hospital executives believe revenue integrity is essential to their organization’s financial health.
On Oct. 31, 2011, President Barack Obama issued an executive order to the Food and Drug Administration to do everything possible to detect and deter drug shortages in the United States, which have been a problem for years and have recently reached record levels.
In its recently released Drug Price Forecast, supply contracting services company Novation projected an estimated weighted drug price inflation of 1.36 percent in the cost of pharmaceuticals from July 1, 2012, through June 30, 2013 in acute care hospital settings. The forecast is based on purchase history and data associated with Novation Pharmacy Program participant healthcare organizations.
January was a record month for healthcare merger and acquisition activity with 95 deals worth a combined total of $17.2 billion being transacted, according to a recent report from healthcare M&A data publisher Irving Levin Associates.
Near-term demand for healthcare workers is the strongest in San Francisco, Riverside/San Bernardino, Calif., and Denver, says Health Workforce Solutions LLC's Labor Market Pulse Index released today for Q1 2012.
The nullification of the 2010 healthcare law currently under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court would be a credit negative for for-profit hospital operators, according to Moody's Investors Service.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded 10 states nearly $72 million in grants to provide early childhood supports and home visits to families who volunteer to receive these services, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Tuesday.
Many U.S. not-for-profit hospitals and health systems will likely face increased pension funding needs in the next several years despite an improvement in funded status in 2011, according to a Standard & Poor's Ratings Services report released Monday.