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Blowing the whistle

Bruce Moilan has conflicted feelings after his bout as a whistle-blower led to his former employer paying a By Gregg Blesch | March 15, 2010 | Print Magazine Subscription
As Bruce Moilan took his life on an irreversible new course, he didn't tell his wife of more than 30 years or their three grown children. Nor did he, or could he, tell his colleagues at South Texas Health System, the target of his whistle-blower lawsuit that triggered a secret, multiyear federal investigation and ultimately made him a millionaire. FULL STORY »

Certification proclamation

By Joseph Conn | March 08, 2010 | Print Magazine Subscription
The unveiling of a proposed rule that lays the groundwork to authorize organizations to certify electronic health records for a large federal EHR incentive program was greeted with enthusiasm by industry executives. FULL STORY »

Ready ... set ... wait

By Jennifer Lubell | February 22, 2010 | Print Magazine Subscription
Its authority to exist has been established and the members have been chosen, but a key ingredient is missing for the Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission to start doing business: money. FULL STORY »

Late News: Price-fixing cases resolved

By Gregg Blesch | February 08, 2010 | Print Magazine Subscription
The Federal Trade Commission reached separate agreements resolving price-fixing allegations with two Colorado-based independent practice associations. FULL STORY »

Stretching the limits

By Gregg Blesch | December 21, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
Christopher Howard killed his wife with an ax in her bed in 2002. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. The family of the murdered woman sought to hold another party responsible for her death: the suburban Detroit hospital that discharged Howard 10 days earlier. FULL STORY »

Here there and everywhere

By Jennifer Lubell | December 07, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
With evidence piling up that Medicare pro-viders in some parts of the country are providing excessive care to the federal program's beneficiaries, it appears more likely that Congress is going to take some type of action to try to rein in spending in those regions. FULL STORY »

Electric short?

By Joseph Conn | October 26, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
Commercial healthcare laboratories are seeking parity with other healthcare providers under privacy provisions of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. FULL STORY »

Seismic mandate deadline near

By Joe Carlson | October 19, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
California hospital owners are having trouble meeting the state-mandated deadlines for making their buildings more resistant to damage from earthquakes, saying that the ailing economy has left them unable to fund the improvements. FULL STORY »

Making them pay

By Gregg Blesch | October 12, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
The Justice Department trumpeted a recent $2.3 billion criminal plea and civil settlement with Pfizer as its largest healthcare case ever. At its core was the receptiveness of thousands of physicians to the company's overtures of tropical getaways and bogus consulting payments that drove the medical community's willingness to prescribe the anti-inflammatory drug Bextra for acute pain, although the Food and Drug Administration never approved it for that use. FULL STORY »

Messy problem

By Shawn Rhea | September 28, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
Early this month, Loyola University Health System took its incinerator offline just days before the Environmental Protection Agency issued a new rule that will require medical-waste processors to make expensive upgrades that further reduce incinerator emissions. FULL STORY »

Rethinking the rules

By Gregg Blesch | September 28, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
While the president and his allies in Congress attempt to remake the healthcare landscape, the president’s antitrust enforcers are contemplating the first substantial rewrite of their guidebook on mergers since 1992. FULL STORY »

New dialysis payment plan

By Jessica Zigmond | September 21, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
Preparing for a mid-November public comment period deadline, renal-care providers last week wasted no time analyzing the CMS' newly proposed prospective payment system for facilities that provide dialysis services to Medicare beneficiaries with end-stage renal disease. At first look, providers didn't like everything they saw. FULL STORY »

 
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