A top Senate Republican continues to press newly minted CMS Administrator Don Berwick over possible conflicts of interest from his previous tenure as president and CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a Cambridge, Mass.-based think tank.
FULL STORY »

Senate Democrats are eyeing two healthcare-related provisions previously stripped from broader legislative packages.
FULL STORY »

Tennessee Attorney General Robert Cooper Jr. said in a letter today that he will take no action on the $154.1 million sale of tax-exempt Sumner Regional Health Systems, Gallatin, Tenn., to investor-owned LifePoint Hospitals, Brentwood, Tenn. The attorney general's decision clears the way for the...
FULL STORY »

Stand-alone Rockingham Memorial Hospital, Harrisonburg, Va., announced that it has signed a letter of intent to become part of eight-hospital Sentara Healthcare system, Norfolk, Va.
FULL STORY »

Two large hospital providers named new CEOs, and a third announced its CEO is retiring. Physician and diabetes researcher Kenneth Polonsky was named the new top executive at 548-bed University of Chicago Medical Center.
FULL STORY »

Economic history, and the history of U.S. healthcare in general, has shown time and time again that the best way to have healthcare costs go higher and higher and higher—while leaving many patients out in the cold unable to afford what is offered by for-profit insurers—is to let the...
FULL STORY »

Tenet Healthcare Corp., Dallas, plans to release second-quarter results on Tuesday, Aug. 3. The company will hold a live webcast at 10 a.m. ET that same day...
FULL STORY »

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will subsidize health insurance for as many as 15 million U.S. women who are currently uninsured and strengthen existing coverage for 14.5 million women who are considered underinsured, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund.
FULL STORY »

A White House official reiterated that federal dollars would not be used to pay for abortion services except in the rarest of instances under a newly created health insurance program aimed at covering the sick and uninsured.
FULL STORY »

The dollars that are spent paying insurance premiums in the hope that bills for healthcare service are paid would be better spent actually paying directly for services.
FULL STORY »

Fitch Ratings said operating margins improved in 2009 for not-for-profit hospitals and health systems, regardless of overall credit strength.
FULL STORY »

Staffing firm AMN Healthcare is acquiring rival workforce solutions firm Nursefinders, Arlington, Texas, in a $220 million deal that includes stock transactions and a payoff of existing debt.
FULL STORY »

The prospect of billions of dollars of federal subsidy payments flowing into the healthcare industry for information technology has so piqued the interest of a foreign IT company that has acquired an American firm to gain instant entry into the U.S. market, according to a news release.
FULL STORY »

HCA and Community Health Systems recorded higher profits for the second quarter despite weak volume and higher overall costs for uninsured patients.
FULL STORY »

Workplace wellness programs have grown in popularity among employers seeking to control healthcare spending, but many programs aren't comprehensive enough to make a difference, according to a new report.
FULL STORY »

Health information services provider WebMD Health Corp. will release second-quarter results on Tuesday, Aug. 3. The company will host a conference call at 4:45 p.m. ET that same day to discuss the results.
FULL STORY »

A federal appeals court has ordered two healthcare finance executives convicted in a $1.9 billion corporate fraud case to be resentenced.
FULL STORY »

Community Health Systems will hold a conference call to discuss second-quarter results at 11:30 a.m. ET Thursday July 29.
FULL STORY »

If we put all our effort into records for poor and elderly adults, we will only be capturing their care from a point forward that most likely omits important health history.
FULL STORY »

Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Calif.) has introduced legislation to improve the workforce conditions of home-care providers while taking steps to recruit more people to the profession.
FULL STORY »

Two major health insurers posted income gains in the second quarter, with WellPoint's profits up 4% over the same quarter a year ago, and Aetna showing a 42% jump in profits in the same time period.
FULL STORY »

HealthGrades, a publicly traded healthcare ratings organization, said it entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by private-equity firm Vestar Capital Partners V for $294 million.
FULL STORY »

A senior House Republican has stepped up his call for HHS to turn over cost estimates it received from federal actuaries about the healthcare reform legislation before it became law.
FULL STORY »

Former Rhode Island hospital executive Robert Urciuoli was ordered to surrender to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons on Aug. 31 and begin serving a three-year sentence for buying the influence of a state senator.
FULL STORY »

The money could begin flowing from Medicare to providers for the purchase of electronic health-record systems as early as May 2011, a CMS official said today.On the other hand, despite the CMS' recent publication of
FULL STORY »

In its second corporate acquisition announcement in two months, medical supply company Covidien has completed the purchase of devicemaker Somanetics for $250 million. The deal was announced last month.
FULL STORY »

Health insurance plans will be able to use limited sign-up periods and still comply with a health reform provision that eliminates pre-existing condition exclusions for children under age 19, HHS announced.
FULL STORY »

Patty Thierry Sheridan, president of the Chicago-based health information management consulting and staffing firm Care Communications, has been elected president-elect of the American Health Information Management Association and will assume that post Jan. 1, 2011.
FULL STORY »

Illinois healthcare providers moved one step closer to interoperable electronic data sharing as Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill creating the Health Information Exchange Authority.
FULL STORY »