News

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals has cut Medicaid payments for hospital services by 7.16 percent to reduce the state's budget deficit.

The Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission has approved a 1.77 percent increase in the rates hospitals can charge their patients.

President Obama met with Congressional leaders Wednesday night to get a commitment on health reform legislation. The President says Congress has promised to have comprehensive health reform legislation passed by July 31.

R. Andrew Eckert, who as CEO of the Eclipsys Corporation saw the company through a restructuring in 2006 and back to prosperity, is stepping down from the helm of the Atlanta-based company. Eckert will be replaced by a well-known industry insider.

Medicare patients with diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or congestive heart failure who used home healthcare within three months of discharge from a hospital cost the program $1.71 billion less than those who used other forms of post-acute care over a two-year period.

A recent study has found that medical practices spend between $21 billion and $31 billion annually dealing with insurers - or more than $68,000 per physician per year.

In the last four months, an increasing number of academic institutions have closed clinical laboratory sciences programs as a result of state budget cuts and the economic downturn.

The market for innovative biotherapies in cancer treatment is expected to nearly double in the next five years and reach $60 billion in 10 years, according to Kalorama Information.

The Medicare trust fund will be exhausted by 2017, two years earlier than originally projected, according to the annual report by Medicare Trustees.

Elderly Medicare beneficiaries are more satisfied with their healthcare and experience fewer problems accessing and paying for care than Americans with employer-sponsored insurance, according to a study by Commonwealth Fund researchers.