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New York Times: Fewer Patients Paying Hospital Bills |
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Written by Staff
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Friday, 07 November 2008 |
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Not only are fewer patients able to pay their bills, fewer paying patients are walking through the doors of hospitals: Even patients with insurance are deferring treatment and procedures, reports the New York Times. |
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Wall Street Journal: Commercial Insurers Scrutinize Imaging Services |
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Written by Stephanie Wasek
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Thursday, 06 November 2008 |
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Commercial payors are increasingly seeking to eliminate payments for imaging services and are justifying their hiring of outside firms to scrutinize the medical necessity of such exams by saying this area is prone to wasteful spending, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. |
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Top 10 Grossing Hospitals in the United States |
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Written by Staff
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Thursday, 30 October 2008 |
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Here are the top 10 U.S. hospitals by gross revenue (with figures rounded to the nearest hundred million), according to the American Hospital Directory.
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3 Ways to Retain Hospital Nurses |
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Written by Stephanie Wasek
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Wednesday, 29 October 2008 |
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In a report examining inpatient RN staffing at VA medical centers, the GAO uncovered three key factors hurting nurse retention efforts. Conversely, remedying these issues could enhance your hospital's retention of RNs. Here's what the report found. |
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Wall Street Journal: Non-Profits Moving to Suburbs |
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Written by Stephanie Wasek
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Tuesday, 14 October 2008 |
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In major metropolitan areas nationwide, non-profit hospitals are shutting down city-based facilities and "spending billions on suburban expansions," reports the Wall Street Journal on the front page of the Oct. 14 edition. The article focuses on the Detroit metro area, where the number of non-profit hospitals has shrunk from more than 42 in the 1960 to just four today. |
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3 Hospital Market Observations |
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Written by Stephanie Wasek
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Saturday, 11 October 2008 |
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Current hospital market conditions are very challenging, which is likely to drive significant mergers and acquisitions activity in the sector in the near future, says Sean Sullivan, vice president and principal at Brown Gibbons Lang & Company, a boutique investment banking firm in Chicago. Below are three hospital market dynamics/trends at the top of his mind. |
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Credit Crunch Prompts Sale of Lincoln Park Hospital |
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Written by Stephanie Wasek
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Friday, 10 October 2008 |
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Citing the credit crisis and the resulting difficulty in securing financing, Lincoln Park Hospital is seeking a buyer, reports the Chicago Tribune. |
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Top 10 States With More Hospitals Than Surgery Centers |
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Written by Staff
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Wednesday, 08 October 2008 |
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Here are the top 10 states with more hospitals than surgery centers, ranked by ratio of hospitals per surgery center, according to SDI’s 2008 Outpatient Surgery Center Market Report. Ratio of number of hospitals per surgery center (ASC) is indicated in parentheses.
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Practical Guidance to Help You Understand and Plan for On-Call Coverage Payments |
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Written by Jen Johnson, CFA
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Thursday, 02 October 2008 |
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Adequate on-call emergency coverage is a real issue for hospital emergency departments and inpatients requiring urgent specialist consultation. Sullivan Cotter’s 2008 Physician On-Call Pay Survey Report states that 85 percent of survey respondents have experienced difficulty finding physicians to provide on-call coverage. The problem has been so severe in some instances that 16 percent of respondents reported the discontinuation of service lines due to lack of call coverage; these specialties included neurosurgery, orthopedic surgery, urology, obstetrics/gynecology and vascular surgery. These statistics help support and explain the recent, growing trend in providing payments for on-call coverage.
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HCA CEO Jack Bovender Announces Retirement |
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Written by Staff
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Tuesday, 30 September 2008 |
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Jack Bovender, Jr., chairman and CEO of HCA Inc., has announced that he will retire as CEO at the end of this year, according to a statement issued by HCA.
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Ray Grady of Evanston Hospital to Retire at End of 2008 |
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Written by Staff
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Monday, 29 September 2008 |
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Ray Grady, president and CEO of Evanston (Ill.) Hospital, and an outstanding leader with an exception temperament and intellect, will retire at the end of 2008 following nearly 30 years of service for the NorthShore University HealthSystem (previously Evanston Northwestern Healthcare).
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New Report Examines Hospital-Physician Relationships and Arrangements to Secure Successful Alignment |
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Written by Staff
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Thursday, 11 September 2008 |
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A new report examines the trends driving a shift in hospital-physician relationships and profiles the arrangements that can be adopted to secure successful, long-term alignment with the physician workforce. The report is the result of a collaborative effort between Sg2, a leading international, future-focused healthcare intelligence company providing expert-led resources, tools and education to enhance maximize clinical effectiveness, and McGuireWoods, a leading law firm with one of the largest healthcare departments in the country.
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Top 10 Procedures Associated With the Most Expensive Ambulatory Surgical Hospital Visits |
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Written by Staff
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Wednesday, 10 September 2008 |
Here are the top ten ambulatory procedures associated with the most costly stays in hospitals, with the mean charges for the visit, according to 2003 statistics from 17 selected states.
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Top 10 Ambulatory Surgery Procedures in Hospitals |
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Written by Staff
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Monday, 08 September 2008 |
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Here are the top ten most commonly performed ambulatory surgeries in hospitals, according to 2003 statistics from 17 selected states. Total number of ambulatory surgeries performed (rounded to the nearest thousands) for each procedure is provided, with the procedure's percentage of overall ambulatory surgeries in parentheses.
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In the News: Power of Nonprofit Hospitals Increasing |
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Written by Stephanie Wasek
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Thursday, 28 August 2008 |
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The power of nonprofit hospital systems over regional communities has "increased in recent years as their incomes have surged," the Wall Street Journal reports in its Aug. 28 edition. The result, say critics, is the creation of "untaxed local health-care monopolies" that are at least partly responsible for higher healthcare costs. |
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New Jersey Hospitals Required to File Monthly Reports on Their Financial Health |
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Written by Rob Kurtz
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Wednesday, 27 August 2008 |
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As part of a series of healthcare bills signed into law by New Jersey Governor Jon S. Corzine, hospitals in the state will now be required to file monthly, rather than quarterly, unaudited financial information to help the state identify distressed hospitals sooner.
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Top 5 Ways Hospitals Are Trying to Improve Claims Accuracy |
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Written by Stephanie Wasek
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Tuesday, 19 August 2008 |
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Ninety-two percent of hospital health information management (HIM) directors are aware of CMS's Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) program, which aims to root out claims paid in error, according to a survey conducted on behalf of Walters Kluwer Health Clinical Solutions and ProVation Medical. In light of the federal government's efforts, 81 percent of HIM directors are taking steps to improve Medicare claims accuracy.
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10 States With the Most Hospitals |
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Written by Staff
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Monday, 04 August 2008 |
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Here are the top ten states with the most non-federal, short-term, acute care hospitals, according to the American Hospital Directory (with number of hospitals in parentheses).
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Surgeons Least-Satisfied Physicians in Hospitals; Problems With ORs Highlighted |
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Written by Stephanie Wasek
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Wednesday, 30 July 2008 |
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Surgeons are the least satisfied of all specialty physicians, "which is troubling because they are high revenue producers," according to a new Press Ganey Associates report.
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Physician Satisfaction by Surgical Specialty |
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Written by Stephanie Wasek
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Wednesday, 30 July 2008 |
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Of the 14 surgical specialties listed in Press Ganey's Hospital Check-Up Report 2008: Physician Perspectives on American Hospitals, 12 reported satisfaction levels below the mean satisfaction score, and four of the five least-satisfied specialties were surgical. Oral surgery was the only surgical specialty to make the top five. Here are the surgical specialty rankings. |
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News & Analysis 
