Workforce

Starting salaries for both primary care physicians and specialists have shot up in the last 12 months, according to a 2016 report by Merritt Hawkins, a physician search firm and subsidiary of AMN Healthcare. The spike represents a rising demand for physicians and amid the growing doctor shortage, Merritt Hawkins said.

Medical University of South Carolina has chosen Avantas to deliver system-wide workforce planning services that include predictive analytics, scheduling software and centralized resource management. MUSC Health expects this will optimize the health system's core and contingent labor, the companies announced on Wednesday.

The Department of Veterans Affairs publicly announced on Wednesday that is formally removed three senior officials from the Phoenix VA Health Care System in the continuing wait-time scandal.

Healthcare businesses added 46,000 jobs in May, standing out in a month where job growth slowed across most industries, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

With the shortage of primary care providers already severe in some areas of the country, a recent study published in Health Affairs has found that 58 percent of retail clinic cases were new visits, which drove about a $14-per-person annual net increase in spending.

Cost saving strategies vary from health system to health system, but experts say close monitoring of labor costs is one of the most important areas that can affect an organization's finance structure.

The study sought to measure whether having access to such a tool, and with it more price information, was associated with a reduction in annual outpatient spending in the first 12 months after the tool was introduced.

Healthcare businesses added 44,000 jobs in April, another big surge for the industry and representing more than a quarter of the 160,000 jobs created that month among all hiring sectors, according to data released Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Gallina succeeds Wayne S. DeVeydt, who, after more than a decade of service to Anthem, including 9 years in the executive vice president and chief financial officer role, decided to step down from the position effective May 31, citing family commitments and philanthropic work.

Physician payments rates are on the rise across the United States, according to a national compensation survey released Friday from MD Ranger.