Richard Pizzi

Employment in the U.S. healthcare sector continued its steady climb, increasing by approximately 9,300 jobs in June. The industry has gained 217,000 jobs over the past year.

Health Management Associates, Inc., has acquired a 60 percent controlling interest in three Shands HealthCare hospitals in Florida: Shands Lake Shore in Lake City, Shands Live Oak in Live Oak and Shands Starke in Starke.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to work with providers to address concerns about enrollment in Medicare's Provider Enrollment, Chain and Ownership System.

New Jersey hospitals provided $2.6 billion in benefits beyond healthcare services to their communities in 2009, according to a new report from the New Jersey Hospital Association.

Capella Healthcare, which operates 13 community hospitals in the United States, has completed a public debt financing transaction worth $500 million.

Two recent surveys by the Society of Actuaries suggest that more transparency within the U.S. healthcare system is the key to bending the cost curve downward.

CSI Financial Services, a provider of low-interest bank loans to patients, has secured agreements to provide loans to self-pay patients at three Midwest hospital systems.

The Hospital Corporation of America has entered into a letter of intent with Mercy Hospital in Miami, Fla., for the sale of the acute care facility to HCA.

The top fifty pharmaceutical companies in the world have some 550 projects in late-stage development, and a new report estimates that these projects have the potential to add more than $70 billion in revenues to the market by 2015.

Overall healthcare prices held steady from April through May, although they were 2.9 percent higher than a year ago, according to data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.