News
The value of care offered to hospital patients can vary by as much as 40 percent across the United States, according to a 2009 study examining quality, affordability, efficiency and patient satisfaction at more than 3,000 hospitals.
Unless Congress acts, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) plans a 21.2 percent Medicare pay cut for physicians beginning Jan. 1, 2010.
In a year when economic conditions made doctors feel they had less control over the way they practiced, and many different plans for healthcare reform were proposed, the consensus in the community care sector is clear: reform is necessary, and soon.
Pressured by an economy in crisis, state budget cuts and questions about community benefit, hospitals in 2009 stressed the value they provide to their regions.
Now that the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor, or RAC, program is rolling out nationwide, officials from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services say they want to make the program less burdensome for providers.
The recession hit many physician practices hard in 2009, forcing docs to become creative in their approach to the delivery of care, practice ownership, and other administrative issues.
The depressed economic climate in 2009 led some hospitals to seek out opportunities for affiliation arrangements with other facilities, and sometimes even for mergers.
Employment in the U.S. healthcare sector increased by approximately 21,000 jobs in November, while the national unemployment rate dropped slightly to 10.0 percent, according to recent data from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A new analysis released by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius contends that businesses' health insurance costs will be lower under health insurance reform - even though it does not take into account the full range of policies that will benefit businesses.
Leapfrog added a new efficiency standard to its quality criteria and introduced a category for best rural hospitals on its annual list of the top 45 hospitals in the nation.