Richard Pizzi

The final regulations for accountable care organizations (ACOs), released in October by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, were a bit surprising, as they contained major revisions from the draft regulations announced earlier in the year.

The healthcare employment engine rolls on. The industry continued to add jobs in October, increasing employment by 11,600 positions.

Healthcare systems with a centralized and strategic approach to their real estate activities may enjoy significant competitive advantages over systems that delegate property decisions to individual hospitals, according to a new study from the financial services firm Jones Lang LaSalle.

According to Francis Hollweck, a senior manager in the Healthcare Advisory Services group at the public accounting firm Crowe Horwath, if hospitals’ bad debt expenses are not identified or collected in advance of a procedure or at the time of check-in, it becomes much harder for the hospital to recoup the payment.

As we race toward the 2012 presidential primary season, there is much talk about the sins of “Obamacare.”

U.S. healthcare prices increased in September 2011, rising 0.2 percent over August prices, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The U.S. healthcare sector continues to grow jobs in 2011 as the national economic situation remains dicey. The industry added 43,800 positions in September.

IPC The Hospitalist Company, a national hospitalist group practice firm, has acquired a Kansas City-area hospitalist practice, establishing a presence for the first time in that region.

Healthcare Trust of America, a non-traded, real estate investment trust, has acquired a five-building, five-state portfolio of medical office properties for more than $84 million.

Lillibridge Healthcare Services, a subsidiary of the Chicago-based Ventas healthcare real estate investment trust, has acquired five medical office buildings on the campuses of two ThedaCare hospitals in Wisconsin.