Stephanie Bouchard
With an increasing demand for home care services, home care businesses have been springing up in communities across the country. And with the rapid expansion of these largely unregulated businesses questions about the industry's hiring practices have begun to surface.
For-profit healthcare chain, Steward Health Care System, is continuing to expand its reach, this time northward into Maine. On Monday, Mercy Health System of Maine, a nonprofit, Catholic system associated with the Sisters of Mercy and Catholic Health East, announced that it had signed a non-binding letter of intent with Steward, the first step in a possible acquisition.
A legal challenge to the Affordable Care Act's restriction on doctors owning hospitals was foiled last week when the U.S. Court of Appeals in Houston dismissed an appeal from Physician Hospitals of America and the Texas Spine & Joint Hospital.
Just over a decade ago, members of Arkansas Children's Hospital's management decided to go to Disney World. It wasn't a fun-and-games trip, although fun was had. They went to learn about developing a culture that would support everyone working at the hospital and everyone using hospital services. Arkansas Children's was ahead of a trend recently taking hold in the healthcare industry: valuing customer service.
On the U.S. Department of Treasury's Go Direct campaign website is a countdown clock. It isn't counting down to the end of the Mayan calendar. And although some older adults may view the clock as ticking down to the end of the world as they know it, the Treasury Department and leaders of the long-term care industry say the deadline it's counting down to will begin a new era of increased efficiency and cost savings.
Fifteen years after the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) directed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to implement intermediate sanctions for noncompliant home health agencies (HHAs), the federal agency has finally complied.
An analysis of hospices active in Medicare between 1999 and 2009 published in the June issue of Health Affairs is an attempt to shed some light on the degree of the changes transforming the industry and to point the industry in the direction it should be focusing on.
The home care industry has enormous potential for business people. One segment of the business world has already figured this out: franchise business owners
The obesity epidemic in the U.S. will eventually bankrupt the nation if left unchecked, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, which held a webcast June 5 to outline its recommendations for curbing the crisis.
If you were to measure the influence any group has in politics by how much money is contributed to campaigns, the healthcare sector would deservedly be labeled influential. But lobbying insiders say it's not just the money that gives the healthcare industry authority - it's the effectiveness of the advocates the industry employs - and that effectiveness - maybe to the surprise of some - is dependent as much on trustworthiness as on anything.