Quality and Safety

A new analysis of hospital readmissions allows state Medicaid medical directors to better understand the nature and prevalence of hospital use in the Medicaid population, and provides a baseline for measuring improvement.

Putting technology in the hands of doctors that can provide real-time data can help cut costs, but such technology can be expensive for health systems. The question then becomes is it worth it economically?

If physicians and health executives could design and build a new hospital with features they've long dreamed of, would the finances fall into place? One booming healthcare market is about to find out.

Medicare officials have allowed patients at dozens of hospitals participating in pilot projects across the country to be exempted from the controversial requirement that limits nursing home coverage to seniors admitted to a hospital for at least three days.

Hospitals are increasingly making reducing hospital-acquired infections and readmissions a priority -- and saving millions of dollars in the process -- but there are still gaps to be filled.

Cancer treatment costs are among the highest in the healthcare industry. Insurer UnitedHealthcare created a pilot in an attempt to lower costs that has yielded some promising, though somewhat mixed results.

Medicare regulators are updating hospital outpatient and ambulatory surgery center payments for next year, and also outlining a potential remedy to private Medicare overpayments.

A patient-centered medical home program with a physician-owned, multispecialty group has been so promising that Aetna is extending the arrangement.

When a car rolls off an assembly line, the automaker knows exactly what parts, labor and facilities cost. Not so in healthcare, and now some health executives are trying to change that.

While the United States pays the most for healthcare among all other developed nations, it also ranks last when it comes to the quality of care received compared to 10 other western, industrialized nations.