News
From the federal government to Wal-Mart, companies are pledging to hire military veterans, and whether signing on to national campaigns or starting their own, healthcare companies are joining the cause.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has proposed allowing hospitals in the state to be owned and operated by businesses. Though most states already have business-owned hospitals, this will be a major change for New York state, which has one of the tightest-regulated healthcare industries in the nation.
Law firm Arent Fox has developed an innovative approach to speed up financing for pricey infrastructure and other capital-intensive projects for public and nonprofit institutions, including hospitals and some healthcare systems.
Between the federal deadline regarding electronic health records and the shift toward accountable care organizations, the call for interoperability of EHRs has never been louder. Patient information should be able to flow freely, the argument goes, between physician practices and hospitals across town and around the country.
Independence Blue Cross and regional provider Abington Health announced in late February they would leverage Lumeris' consulting and technology services to enhance their two-year-old accountable care initiative.
In early February, TransforMED announced that its founding president and CEO, Terry McGeeney had retired. Since TransforMED's formation as an offshoot of the American Academy of Family Physicians in 2007, the company has grown from an initial 16 employees to more than 60 today, and has helped more than 1,200 primary care practices in 40 states make the transition from a fee-for-service model to NCQA Level 3 patient-centered medical home.
Athenahealth's More Disruption Please initiative may serve the company's bottom line, but it's heart is more subversive: to dismantle the healthcare system as it exists today. And the company is doing it one person at a time.
While Republican members of Congress have announced plans to once again use budget measures to attempt to defund key parts of health reform - including nearly $1 billion the Office of Management and Budget requested for CMS, which presumably would be used for the establishment and operation of state health insurance exchanges - their Republican counterparts who occupy state governors' mansions have begun to sing a different tune.
Across the country, hospitals and health systems are transitioning to accountable care organizations (ACOs). What does it take to do that?
Interview with Richard Baron, MD, President and CEO-elect, The American Board of Internal Medicine, Philadelphia