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Energized in D.C.

Jessica Zigmond By Jessica Zigmond | March 12, 2010 | Basic Web Registration
All the talk of power struggles and lack of compromise among federal lawmakers didn't seem to faze behavioral healthcare providers attending the National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems annual meeting in Washington this week. FULL STORY »

Stein strikes populist tone at FAH

Vince Galloro By Vince Galloro | March 03, 2010 | Basic Web Registration
Ben Stein was certainly a different choice as the keynote speaker for the annual meeting of the Federation of American Hospitals. Whether one found that choice inspired or inexplicable probably rested upon one's interest in mildly bawdy jokes and Wall Street bashing. FULL STORY »

Reform was already seen as dead

Modern Healthcare reporter Vince Galloro By Vince Galloro | January 22, 2010 | Basic Web Registration
Even before Scott Brown became something of a household name, healthcare stock analysts thought healthcare reform was dead. FULL STORY »

Are we there yet?

 Rebecca Vesely By Rebecca Vesely | November 13, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
Attendees of the 14th annual National Business Coalition on Health conference Nov. 8-10 practiced what they preached. They hoofed up hills to and from their rooms at the Pointe Hilton Tapatio Cliffs Resort in the brilliant Phoenix sunshine. They dined on Southwestern grilled chicken breast with corn and black beans. Some possibly even logged time in the resort's multiple fitness centers. Health, productivity and wellness were once again central themes of the conference, and the need to find solutions seemed ever-more pressing as we head into year three of the great recession. FULL STORY »

Topic of reform draws out mean-spirited optimists

 Gregg Blesch By Gregg Blesch | November 11, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
Judy Feder, a professor of health policy at Georgetown University, calls herself “a mean-spirited optimist.” Congress, she predicted, will pass a healthcare bill. “I'm happy to say, I think they're stuck,” she said. The Democrats are simply in too deep to pass nothing, Feder told about 200 lawyers assembled for the American Bar Association's Washington Healthcare Summit, held Oct. 25-26 at the Ritz-Carlton, Pentagon City. FULL STORY »

An insider's guide to the healthcare debate

Vince Galloro By Vince Galloro | November 04, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
Richard Pollack and Tom Scully both know Washington and the current healthcare debate inside out. Listening to them both speak to the Tennessee Hospital Association's annual meeting last week in Nashville, only one of them sounded like a man who makes his living lobbying Congress. They both do so, of course. Pollack is the executive vice president in charge of advocacy and public policy for the American Hospital Association. Scully, a former CMS administrator, is senior counsel in the Washington office of the law firm Alston & Bird. FULL STORY »

A lesson in significant digits

 Andis Robeznieks By Andis Robeznieks | October 26, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
In his opening keynote speech at the Medical Group Management Association's recent annual conference in Denver, Ezekiel Emanuel gave 2.24 trillion reasons why there is so much excitement over healthcare reform. FULL STORY »

The healing power of positive distraction

 Andis Robeznieks By Andis Robeznieks | October 02, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
Although the Olympics won't be coming to Chicago, the 22nd annual Healthcare Facilities Symposium & Expo was held again at the city's lakefront Navy Pier facility this week and it's already committed to returning again next September. Take that, International Olympic Committee! FULL STORY »

Maybe new slogan is just what doctor ordered

 Jessica Zigmond By Jessica Zigmond | September 25, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
Three magic words.When it comes to convincing federal lawmakers that physician-owned hospitals are good for patients —and the nation's healthcare system—maybe all physician investors need are three magic words. I came to that conclusion this week after listening to two speakers—one effective, the other less so—at the Physician Hospitals of America's 9th Annual Meeting in New Orleans. FULL STORY »

Talk of reform permeates AHA leadership summit

 Joe Carlson By Joe Carlson | July 29, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
The morning's coffee was still steaming hot in cups around the auditorium as HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius addressed a large audience of influential figures in healthcare.But this was not in Washington. It was not even Bethesda. No, on what was supposed to be the eve of the introduction of one of the most significant legislative overhauls of healthcare in a generation, more than 1,100 executives, industry leaders and hangers-on were assembled in the belly of the Marriott San Francisco. FULL STORY »

Supply chain managers feel strain of downturn

 Shawn Rhea By Shawn Rhea | July 27, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
The most interesting information circulated at the 2009 Association for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management conference didn't originate inside one of the 69 learning labs or one of the many other sessions conducted during this year's event. It was conference participants' out-of-session grumblings and observations that provided the most intriguing glimpses into what supply chain managers are grappling with in the face of an economic downturn. FULL STORY »

Sebelius stays strictly on-message

 Gregg Blesch By Gregg Blesch | July 02, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius revealed something as soon as she took the podium in Washington as the first keynote speaker at the American Health Lawyers Association's annual meeting. Her presence had been engineered by one of the association's board members, Peter Pavarini, who is co-chair of the health law practice at Schottenstein Zox & Dunn in Columbus, Ohio, which happens to be the firm where Sebelius' brother, John Gilligan, is a partner and coordinator of the firm's financial services litigation. FULL STORY »

Tracking system dreams come down to earth

 Shawn Rhea By Shawn Rhea | June 24, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
The anticipated benefits of a universal tracking system for medical products have long loomed grand. For about two decades now, early advocates of electronic tracking technology have painted pictures of a symbiotic global supply-chain process capable of proffering dossier-like information on the history of a bed pan should it be needed. But as the roughly 250 supply-chain executives attending the GS1 Healthcare US Conference held June 16-18 in Washington heard, arriving at that stage of information nirvana isn’t going to come without glitches. FULL STORY »

What a difference a year makes at HFMA

 Melanie Evans By Melanie Evans | June 22, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
Since the last big gathering of the Healthcare Financial Management Association one year ago, so, so much has happened. Financial markets nearly collapsed and the nation’s recession painfully worsened. Healthcare reform, one campaign issue among many in the summer of 2008, emerged as a centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s effort to dent the U.S. budget deficit. FULL STORY »

Watching and waiting for shape of reform

 Joe Carlson By Joe Carlson | June 17, 2009 | Basic Web Registration
Workers were disassembling stage props and wheeling in hulking carts of sliced lemons for lunch, but Mitch Handrich was not going to let all the activity distract him sharing his views the problems with healthcare.“I think we need to get corporations out of healthcare,” said Handrich, an R.N., attending a morning speech during the Catholic Health Association’s annual assembly, which took place in his home city at the Sheraton New Orleans. As he gave a short media interview, conference attendees were already making their way out of the room, which was being converted from a morning... FULL STORY »
 
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