News
A recent report from industry consulting firm Accenture entitled, "Healthcare M&A rethink: Why are payers on the hunt for providers?" shows there has been a dramatic shift in the kinds of acquisitions completed by healthcare payers in the wake of healthcare reform.
In 2009, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBS) launched the Alternative Quality Contract (AQC), a global payment reimbursement pilot program that rewards participating physician groups for controlling spending and improving quality of care. A Commonwealth Fund-sponsored analysis of the first two years of the five-year pilot has found that such programs may be effective at controlling healthcare spending and improving quality.
New Jersey lawmakers considering conflict-of-interests modeled on casino regs
In New Jersey, lawmakers and industry stakeholders negotiating HIX legislation are trying to reconcile differences on proposed conflict of interest rules for the governing board, WHYY's Newsworks reported.
Per capita healthcare spending for people with employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) increased 4.6 percent in 2011, an acceleration of the 3.8 percent increased reported for 2010, according to a new report released today by the Health Care Cost Institute.
Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) Inc., the parent company of Parkridge Medical Center in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Physician Services, has agreed to pay the U.S. Department of Justice $16.5 million to settle claims that it violated the False Claims Act and the Stark Statute in 2007.
With debate still swirling around the Aug. 23rd release of the final rules for meaningful use Stage 2, one CIO offers four reasons to celebrate it.
A number of regional healthcare trends in California have been identified in new market studies of Sacramento and Riverside/San Bernardino conducted by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) in Washington, D.C., and funded by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF).
New market studies of Sacramento and Riverside/San Bernardino conducted by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC) in Washington, D.C., and funded by the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF), show care costs and physician shortage are increasingly challenging provides in the state.
Editor's note: The following report is published here with permission from the Center for Public Integrity.
Electronic medical records, long touted by government officials as a critical tool for cutting health care costs, appear to be prompting some doctors and hospitals to bill higher fees to Medicare for treating seniors.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder wants to bring Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan under the same laws regulating other insure by forcing it to become a mutual insurance company effectively stripping it of its tax exemptions.