CMS Proposes 3 Percent Increase for Outpatient Services, Adding 9 Procedures to ASC List
Written by Stephanie Wasek
Thursday, 03 July 2008
CMS has issued a proposed rule that will update payment rates for calendar year 2009 and aims to improve quality of services provided in HOPDs and ASCs by paying based on quality reporting.
Humana has announced that is has signed an agreement to
purchase Metcare Health Plans, a subsidiary of West Palm
Beach, Fla.-based Metropolitan Health Networks, for an estimated $14
million.
Recruiting, Retaining Physicians Requiring More Creativity
Written by Stephanie Wasek
Sunday, 29 June 2008
The U.S. population continues to grow faster than the physician workforce, making it more important than for physician groups to recruit — and do their best to retain — doctors, according to the 2007 Retention Survey from the American Medical Group Association and Cejka Search, which conducted the survey of 43 physician groups representing 14,705 physicians.
Orthopedic surgeons are offered the highest average base salaries by hospitals and others recruiting physicians, according to a new report from Merritt, Hawkins and Associates, a physician recruiting firm. The "2008 Review of Physician and CRNA Recruiting Incentives" covers average salaries for its top 20 recruited specialties as well as other recruitment incentives.
Strategies That Work for Retaining and Rewarding Staff
Written by Rob Kurtz
Thursday, 19 June 2008
Q: What is your best suggestion for retaining great staff? What do you do to recognize staff members who have been with your facility five years? Ten years?
-- submitted by Marcy Sasso of ASC of Union (N.J.) County
Healthcare Costs "Place Unprecedented, Growing and Long-Lasting Stress" on Government
Written by Stephanie Wasek
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
The federal government is on an "unsustainable long-term fiscal path" when it comes to dealing with sharply rising healthcare costs, according to Gene L. Dodaro, Acting Comptroller General of the United States, today in testimony before the Senate finance committee. Further, the "state and local governments — absent policy changes — will also face large and growing fiscal challenges beginning within the next few years."
The AMA has issued its first report card on health insurers
with a focus on determining the timeliness, transparency and accuracy of claims
processing by payors.
A Pennsylvania Insurance Department hearing on the proposed merger between Independence Blue Cross and Highmark "took an unexpected twist," and "was all about how much the Insurance Department's consultants were being paid — and, more surprising, who was paying them," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Inova Health Ends Merger Attempt Due To FTC Challenge
Written by Rob Kurtz
Monday, 09 June 2008
Northern Virginia’s largest hospital system has announced
that it is abandoning its efforts to merge with Prince William Health System in
Manassas, Vir.
following a legal challenge from the Federal Trade Commission to block the
merger.
Business Issues
