Richard Pizzi

For the first time, Consumer Reports will provide patient satisfaction ratings for more than 3,400 hospitals across the United States.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced late last week that acute care hospitals will receive an inflation update in their payment rates of 2.1 percent in fiscal year 2010.

Hospices serving Medicare beneficiaries will see a 1.4 percent increase in their payments for fiscal year 2010 according to a final regulation released today by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

WellPoint, Inc. has announced that it will offer coverage for the administration of the H1N1 (swine flu) vaccine when it becomes commercially available to the general public.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services placed its 'A-' long-term rating and 'A-' underlying rating on Massachusetts Health and Educational Facilities Authority's series 2008 and 1998 bonds, issued for Boston Medical Center, on CreditWatch with negative implications.

St. Luke’s Hospital & Health Network is offering a surgical guarantee – both financial and clinical – as part of a partnership with urogynecologists at The Institute for Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgery in Allentown, Pa.

It’s difficult for small to mid-sized hospitals to compete against larger health systems in many markets, and the depressed economic climate has led some hospitals to seek out opportunities for mergers.

Predicting the future is always a risky enterprise. When you commit your prognostications to paper, everyone can remind you when you’re wrong.

About 45,000 office-based physicians may be eligible for up to $63,750 over six years to improve and maintain their health information technology systems because of their participation in Medicaid, according to a new study.

After four months of discussion, South Dakota-based Sanford Health and the North Dakota-based MeritCare Health System have announced plans to merge, creating one of the country's largest integrated healthcare systems.