Modern Healthcare articles from December 2004

Modern Healthcare archives from December 2004

UnitedHealth snags Definity.(UnitedHealth Group)(Definity Health Corp.)
December 6, 2004... Byline: Laura B. Benko UnitedHealth Group last week agreed to acquire Definity Health Corp. for $300 million, underscoring a growing shift from tightly managed care toward alternatives that give consumers greater say over their medical...

Nurse scrubs take on air of faith-based initiative.
December 6, 2004... Wearing your religion on your sleeve has taken on a whole new meaning for Lauren Powell and Barbara Payne, who have created a line of Bible-themed clothing for healthcare workers. The two sisters-in-law have started a company called...

Consumer-driven to nowhere; Study throws cold water on recent efforts to beat health cost inflation.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Todd Sloane Uh-oh. It's starting to look like those predictions of a continuing decline in health cost inflation were indeed premature. As this page predicted earlier this year, a report on 2003 health spending by the Center for...

Moving Maves? Report endorses moving AMA's top exec to D.C.(American Medical Association-executive)(Michael Maves-relocation)
December 6, 2004... Byline: Michael Romano A report by the American Medical Association endorses relocating the group's top executive to Washington from Chicago, a move that has been rumored for months as a way to enhance the AMA's presence as a lobbying...

On the move ...(appointments in health care industry)
December 6, 2004... HOSPITALS, SYSTEMS Christopher Mosley has been named CEO of Chesapeake (Va.) General Hospital and parent Chesapeake Health. Mosley, 41, succeeds Donald Buckley, who is retiring after more than 30 years at the helm of the hospital, which is...

Doctor visits up.(physician-patient visits)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... Higher copayments and deductibles apparently have not discouraged Americans from visiting their doctors, according to a new Gallup Poll on healthcare. The poll, conducted in early November and released last week, found that nine out of 10...

Scrushy's setback; Judge denies motion to toss Sarbanes-Oxley charges.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Joseph Mantone Richard Scrushy was dealt setbacks in his fraud case last week while current officials at HealthSouth Corp., the company Scrushy used to run, announced plans to settle fraud allegations with the government and close...

Hall of Fame nomination deadline is now Dec. 13.
December 6, 2004... Modern Healthcare is extending the deadline for readers to submit nominations for the 2005 Health Care Hall of Fame induction. That deadline is now Monday, Dec. 13. The program honors those who have made outstanding contributions to...

Uninsured may rise with costs.(medically uninsured persons-healthcare spending)
December 6, 2004... Byline: Tony Fong Even with the percentage of uninsured Americans at its highest since 1998, a new report issued last week warned that the number of Americans without health coverage could grow as healthcare costs, which plateaued this...

Political divide; Dems, GOP disagree on teaching hospital funding.(Grand Old Party)(democrats)
December 6, 2004... Byline: Michael Romano The deep political division between the so-called "blue'' and "red'' states may extend to how Democrats and Republicans view teaching hospitals, according to a new survey from the Association of American Medical...

Financial overhaul; Not-for-profits take another look at billing, collection.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Melanie Evans Since April, Columbia-St. Mary's in Wisconsin has overhauled its financial aid, simplified its bills and dedicated one full-time collector to handling questions and accounts for uninsured patients with at least...

Union reorganizing; Tactics have continued to evolve over the years.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... Byline: Melanie Evans Unions have moved far beyond picket lines and strikes to get the public's attention and turn up the heat on an employer, with organizers using diverse and evolving tactics. Corporate campaigns, pioneered nearly 30...

Red Cross revamp; Tissue services transferred to refocus on blood supply.(American Red Cross)
December 6, 2004... Byline: Cinda Becker The American Red Cross is initiating a comprehensive restructuring of its embattled $2 billion biomedical services division with a renewed focus on its core business of supplying nearly half the nation's blood supply....

Northeast.(Scruggs Law Firm-University of Pittsburgh Medical Center-cases)(Lenox Hill Hospital-company economic aspects )
December 6, 2004... PITTSBURGH-Scruggs Law Firm, Oxford, Miss., said last week that it did not expect a ruling in a class-action lawsuit against University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to affect the outcome of litigation nationwide over hospitals' billing of...

Room at the top; Thompson resigns; successor speculation abounds.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Michael Romano Tommy Thompson won plaudits from the healthcare community after his resignation as HHS secretary and immediately triggered a wave of speculation about a potential successor to a post that has far-reaching...

Setting a good example; Sarbanes-Oxley Act survives legal challenge from Scrushy, and healthcare executives are paying heed to its governance message.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Paul Barr Richard Scrushy, former CEO of HealthSouth, may have argued that there was plenty wrong with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 in his failed suit challenging the law's constitutionality, but not-for-profit hospital and...

West.(meshed briefs in health care industry)
December 6, 2004... SAN FRANCISCO-A U.S. District Court judge has dismissed federal claims brought against Sutter Health, Sacramento, Calif., by a consortium of law firms led by Oxford, Miss.-based attorney Richard Scruggs. The judge said the plaintiffs failed to...

South.(meshed briefs in health care industry)
December 6, 2004... ARLINGTON, Texas-JPS Health Network, Fort Worth, Texas, completed a deal last week to buy 30-bed Physicians' Metroplex Hospital for $14.7 million. JPS, part of Tarrant County (Texas) Hospital District, agreed to buy the hospital from investment...

Imaging imbroglio; Battle over self-referrals is pitting doc against doc.(doctors)(medical practice)
December 6, 2004... Byline: Cinda Becker Turf skirmishes between radiologists and other specialties erupted into full-scale war at last week's annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago, with several studies pointing the finger at...

Not everyone's happy; Anthem closes $16.4 billion deal for WellPoint.(WellPoint Health Networks)
December 6, 2004... Byline: Laura B. Benko It's official: There's a new world order in the health insurance industry. After 13 months of controversy and regulatory setbacks, Anthem last week finally closed its $16.4 billion acquisition of WellPoint Health...

Legal lesson; Hospital execs learn how to recruit docs the right way.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Mark Taylor As the U.S. attorney in San Diego winds down a kickback case against officials at Tenet Healthcare Corp.'s Alvarado Hospital Medical Center in San Diego, hospital executives and their attorneys around the country are...

The customer comes first; Losing sight of the basics can be catastrophic in the business world.(publisher's letter)
December 6, 2004... Byline: Charles S. Lauer Sometimes you just have to wonder what goes through the minds of some successful businesspeople. You'd think they would want to keep the good times going, making sure they did the little things that add up to big...

Deadline approaches for award nominations.
December 6, 2004... The deadline is approaching for nominations for Modern Healthcare's annual Trustee of the Year competition. The awards, co-sponsored by healthcare executive search firm Witt/Kieffer, honor two outstanding trustees for their contributions to...

Labor pains; As membership slides, unions have turned to provocative 'corporate campaigns' to aid organizing. But critics say they're just a way to increase flagging numbers, dues.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Melanie Evans The Service Employees International Union sees the public face of labor's push to organize U.S. healthcare in Chicago's Rev. Dan Dale. Clergy, such as Dale, low-income patients and community activists-not union...

Late News; Hospital employment up in Nov.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... Hospital employment grew by 7,900 positions in November, helping make healthcare and social assistance one of the fastest-growing industry segments of the year, according to seasonally adjusted figures from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics....

Head to head in Tennessee; For Jim Moss, CEO of a system with a flagship public hospital, it's all about competing to survive.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Vince Galloro How you feel about Jim Moss probably depends on whether you've competed with him. Bob Gordon has mostly found himself on the same side as West Tennessee Healthcare, the Jackson-based system Moss has led since...

Bush's healthcare vision; He seeks new models of financing and delivery in incremental steps.
December 6, 2004... Byline: Robert Moffit In federal healthcare policy, George W. Bush may emerge as the most consequential president since Lyndon B. Johnson. He has presided over the largest expansion of the Medicare program-the addition of the prescription...

Other Voices.(prevention of medical errors)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... "For too long, practicing medicine in the United States has meant never having-or daring-to say you're sorry. Fear of liability often trumped the human urge to express regret. Officials at (Seattle's) Virginia Mason Medical Center (recently)...

Paying for performance; Should providers be rewarded for doing their job?
December 6, 2004... Byline: Joseph Mantone Nursing home providers are welcoming the idea of linking federal payments to quality performance, but some consumer advocates wonder why nursing homes need to be rewarded for offering care they should already...

By the Numbers.(health care industry)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... Few hospitals experienced better-than-normal finances in early 2004, but it wasn't for lack of effort, according to a recent survey of 60 hospitals and health systems by Mellon Consultants. Nearly half of hospitals polled sought to boost...

Volunteers being sought to test Vista-Office EHR.(physician affairs)(electronic health-record system)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician The government is looking for a few willing office-based physicians interested in helping developers adapt the electronic health-record system used by the Veterans Health Administration for use in the private...

Business duties eat up big chunk of docs' time.(doctors-private practice)(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician More than four in 10 physicians in private practice say they spend the equivalent of about one full day per week managing their business, underscoring the growing need to better balance their professional roles...

Specialty providers are optimistic about industry.(Brief Article)
December 6, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician Specialty outpatient providers, such as specialty physicians and diagnostic imaging centers, are showing signs of optimism regarding their industry, according to a new survey by CIT Healthcare Finance, a unit of...

HHS, waiver plans approved.(The Week In Healthcare)(Department of Health & Human Services )
December 13, 2004... Byline: Tony Fong President Bush last week signed off on a $388 billion spending bill that included $375 million for HHS in 2005, but did not include an amendment to scrap controversial overtime regulations. The president also signed a...

Corrections & Clarifications.(The Week In Healthcare)(Correction Notice)
December 13, 2004... * A letter to the editor in the Dec. 6 issue (p. 23) had a wrong first name of the writer. It was from Jane Groves, managing principal and senior vice president of MSA Executive Search, Clark Consulting Healthcare Group, Kansas City, Mo. *...

Code of silence; Loose lips may sink ships, but tight ones fail to inform, protect American public.(Opinions)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Neil McLaughlin We really shouldn't have any secrets,'' says Ralph Lawson, Baptist Health South Florida's chief financial officer, in last week's cover story on the impact of Sarbanes-Oxley (Dec. 6, p. 6). Lawson was talking...

Ill. official wants plastic surgery to fund research.(Physician Affairs)(Illinois State Comptroller Dan Hynes )(Brief Article)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician When Illinois State Comptroller Dan Hynes proposed creating a $1 billion state-funded institute for stem-cell research modeled on a California initiative, he was thinking about the economic development as well as...

Courtroom string broken; Two rulings, first setback for hospitals in Scruggs cases.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Paul Barr Two recent federal district court rulings produced the first negative news for hospital defendants in the uninsured billing lawsuits stemming from lawyer Richard Scruggs, though a different lawsuit was dismissed on its...

Battle escalates; MedPAC, AMA at opposite ends of debate on physician-owned facilities.(Late News)(Medicare Payment Advisory Commission)(American Medical Association)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Tony Fong, Michael Romano and Mark Taylor Lines are being drawn in the contentious debate over physician-owned specialty hospitals. The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on Medicare issues, last week...

Opening up files in Florida.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Melanie Evans Florida's hospitals must comply with a month-old state constitutional amendment that gives patients broad access to hospital and physician records on harmful medical mistakes, a judge ruled last week. Second...

Passing the buck; Blues study blames hospitals for rising costs.(The Week In Healthcare)(Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Laura B. Benko Less than a month after reporting record profits, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association released a study fingering hospitals as the key culprit behind the nation's rising healthcare costs. The Blues' third...

From India to Iowa; 'Missionaries in reverse' imported to bring geriatric care to rural area.(Special Feature)(St. Anthony Regional Hospital )
December 13, 2004... Byline: Ed Finkel St. Anthony Regional Hospital serves a rural area of about 60,000 people. But the 99-bed hospital and 79-bed nursing home-based in Carroll, Iowa-have cast a global net in their recruiting efforts for certified nursing...

Hospital grows its own staff.(Brief Article)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Ed Finkel To ensure a continued supply of critical front-line workers in its rural corner of Massachusetts, Fairview Hospital in Great Barrington has designed a program called Grow Your Own that begins as early as seventh grade....

Doc's big day delayed while he reaps real rewards.(Outliers: Asides & Insides)
December 13, 2004... Dec. 1 was supposed to be Kenneth Paul Mauterer's big day in his tiny hometown of Olla, La. The auditorium at his alma mater, LaSalle High School, was booked. A couple of congressmen and local officials were scheduled to appear. And...

Place to go; Like system members, CHA seeks new leader.(The Week In Healthcare)(Catholic Health Association)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Melanie Evans The Rev. Michael Place exits his job as head of the Catholic Health Association advocating the same cause he championed when he arrived at the CHA nearly seven years ago: healthcare reform. "We have to be that...

CMS creates 26 PPO regions.(The Week In Healthcare)(Preferred Provider Organization)(Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Laura B. Benko Medicare officials divided the country into 26 coverage regions last week in a compromise ruling that many private insurers said would likely prompt them to expand their participation in the newly revised Medicare...

Smoking 'em out early; Pennsylvania center's flair for the dramatic reduces youth smoking.(Special Feature)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Ed Finkel Betty Jean Marconi calls it her "nightmare child'': a character called Carmen von Boxide (representing, naturally, carbon monoxide) who stars in performances staged by the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center,...

Bringing dads into the picture.(Special Feature)(Brief Article)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Ed Finkel When dads are involved, kids do better. That simple maxim became the driving force behind a program developed by St. Francis Health Center, Topeka, Kan., which had assembled area leaders to delve into their community's...

Blizzard of deals; In a sure sign of a robust industry, companies recently have gotten in the spirit to merge and acquire.
December 13, 2004... Byline: Vince Galloro In the retail world, consumer spending on holiday gifts is viewed as a measure of how well retailers will fare for the year and of consumer confidence in the overall economy. Applying those maxims to healthcare,...

Remembering those who serve; Our men and women in the armed forces are a source of inspiration.(publisher's letter)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Charles S. Lauer I recently spent an emotional and inspirational day in Washington. It gave me a sense of pride in our country and its people, especially those brave, dedicated and loyal young men and women in our armed forces. ...

Taking it a step further; Spirit of Excellence Awards honor the best of the best.(Special Feature)(Editorial)
December 13, 2004... Byline: David Burda, editor Modern Healthcare congratulates the winners and honorable mentions of this year's Spirit of Excellence Awards, co-sponsored by Sodexho Health Care Services, an Avon, Conn.-based company. This year's competition...

Other Voices.(Brief Article)
December 13, 2004... "Conventional wisdom in Washington has it that Mark McClellan, the head of (CMS), is a shoo-in for (HHS Secretary Tommy) Thompson's job. In hearings earlier this year, senators let McClellan get away with rhetorical murder-failing to question...

On the move ...(News Makers)
December 13, 2004... HOSPITALS, SYSTEMS Outgoing New Jersey Health and Senior Services Commissioner Clifton Lacy was tapped as the new president and CEO of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick, N.J., effective in January. Lacy, 52, will...

The one-hour ER; Ohio hospital meets guarantee 99.5% of time, grows volume 40%.(Special Feature)(Emergency Room )
December 13, 2004... Byline: Ed Finkel Four years ago, Allen Medical Center, Oberlin, Ohio, came within two weeks of closing. The 25-bed, mostly outpatient critical-access facility had just brought in a new management team to focus its turnaround effort on the...

Program promotes healing.(Special Feature)(Brief Article)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Ed Finkel More than 500 families who have experienced perinatal loss-a miscarriage, stillbirth or newborn death-have found some measure of healing through the perinatal bereavement program at PinnacleHealth System, Harrisburg, Pa.,...

Homeless veterans linked to care; Upstate New York program seeks to seize missed opportunities.(Special Feature)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Ed Finkel Since 1987, homeless veterans in upstate New York have been able to receive help finding housing and employment along with treatment for substance abuse, mental illness and other healthcare issues. But until recently,...

Taking aim at cardiac infections.(Special Feature)(Brief Article)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Ed Finkel Christ Hospital, a tertiary-care facility in Cincinnati, performs cardiac surgeries on more than 900 patients per year, as many as half of whom enter via the emergency room and are urgently catheterized. As part of the...

Large group docs more likely to go high-tech.(Physician Affairs)(Brief Article)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician Physicians in large group practices are 7.7 times more likely to practice in a "high-tech" information technology environment than physicians in solo practices, according to a Commonwealth Fund survey. ...

One-third of hospitals lack infection-control staff: VHA.(Physician Affairs)(Voluntary Hospitals Association )(Brief Article)
December 13, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician Hospitals often inadequately fund infection control, according to a recent survey by the Irving, Texas-based VHA healthcare cooperative. About one-third of hospitals surveyed had less than the recommended ratio...

By the Numbers.(Brief Article)
December 13, 2004... People 65 and over accounted for 13% of the population and $387 billion, or 36%, of U.S. personal healthcare spending in 1999, according to a new report by the CMS. Those 65 and over accounted for $144 billion, or 37%, of hospital spending, and...

Telling it like it is; Tenet expects more losses in 4th quarter, $1 billion in charges related to divestiture.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 20, 2004... Byline: Vince Galloro Tenet Healthcare Corp. invited stock analysts and investors to its soon-to-be headquarters in Dallas last week, and the company leveled with them. In a five-hour conference also broadcast over the Internet,...

Categorizing care; CHA, VHA provide guidelines for charity endeavors.(The Week In Healthcare)(Catholic Health Association)
December 20, 2004... Byline: Melanie Evans Capping a year of heightened scrutiny of not-for-profit hospitals' care for needy patients, two high-profile hospital groups released revised accounting guidelines last week for charity care and other expenses that...

Lawmaker to lobbyist; Tauzin is second major reform player to join drug biz.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 20, 2004... Byline: Tony Fong Little more than a year after the recently passed Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which gives seniors prescription drug coverage, Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-La.) became the second high-ranking government official to move...

Editor's Note.(By The Numbers)(Editorial)
December 20, 2004... Byline: David May First, do the numbers. That's a common caveat whenever any deal is being contemplated or as other decisions are weighed, whether it's in corporate boardrooms or personal finance. But that's also sound advice for...

Peddling subscriptions; Calif. IPA offers medical record service, with a catch.(Information Edge)(Brown & Toland Medical Group)
December 20, 2004... Byline: Joseph Conn Brown & Toland Medical Group, based in San Francisco, has launched the first element in what its medical director hopes will become the provision of a subscription-based, complete electronic medical record service for...

Big business; Humana agrees to acquire CarePlus for $450 million.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 20, 2004... Byline: Laura B. Benko In the latest sign that the market for Medicare HMOs is heating back up, Humana last week agreed to acquire 50,000-member CarePlus Health Plans of Florida for roughly $450 million. The addition of the privately...

Don't fix it; Spitzer probes alleged price-fixing by N.Y. network.(Late News)(Eliot L. Spitzer)
December 20, 2004... Byline: Mark Taylor In the latest of at least three antitrust probes into alleged anticompetitive behavior by hospitals operating in Long Island, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer is investigating price-fixing allegations against...

A Chicken Little act that's getting old; Salaries, profits, spending on rise while leaders claim the system is broken.(Opinions)(Editorial)
December 20, 2004... Byline: David Burda, Editor If I had a dime for every time I heard the phrases, "the system is broken,'' "the system is fundamentally flawed,'' or "the gap between the `haves' and `have nots' is getting bigger,'' I could afford to open my...

Group moves on quality.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 20, 2004... Byline: Melanie Evans Impatient with the healthcare industry's efforts to weed out medical mistakes, a Boston quality expert launched an 18-month campaign last week to enlist 1,600 hospitals to reduce preventable medication mistakes and...

Worth some of its salt; Utah waiver program earned mixed reviews.
December 20, 2004... Byline: Mark Taylor Since its sponsor's rise from three-term Utah governor to administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and then nomination for HHS Secretary, the Utah Medicaid waiver program that first brought Michael Leavitt...

SEIU locals merge in Calif.(The Week In Healthcare)(Service Employees International Union )
December 20, 2004... Byline: Melanie Evans Unionized employees at more than 100 California hospitals and clinics voted to merge two Service Employees International Union locals for more muscle while organizing, bargaining and lobbying, said labor leaders who...

Other Voices.(Opinions)
December 20, 2004... "The next big health item on the Bush agenda may well be reducing the costs of Medicaid, and (HHS nominee Mike) Leavitt's main credential in the healthcare field during his tenure as governor of Utah was that he cut costs at the state's...

Year in review 2004; That was the year that was--and what a year it was.(health care industry)(Editorial)
December 20, 2004... Byline: Neil McLaughlin, Managing Editor That was the year that was--and what a year it was. With a presidential election, mergers, lawsuits over hospitals' treatment of the uninsured, controversies over executive compensation,...

Heart smart; Acquisition to increase industry giant's offerings.(The Week In Healthcare)(Guidant Corp. and Johnson & Johnson)
December 20, 2004... Byline: Cinda Becker Johnson and Johnson's $25.4 billion proposal to acquire Guidant Corp., Indianapolis, a leader in pacemaker and defibrillator technology, promises to give the healthcare giant, which has long been established in the...

Medicaid trailblazer; Bush's nomination of EPA chief and former Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt as HHS secretary may be preview of coming attractions.(Department of Health & Human Services)
December 20, 2004... Byline: Tony Fong The nomination of Michael Leavitt to head HHS may signal the Bush administration's plan to ratchet up efforts to reform the Medicaid program after a similar initiative fizzled almost two years ago. Last week,...

At Ind. spa, get a massage while awaiting your nose job.(Outliers: Asides & Insides)(health spas)
December 20, 2004... Medical spas are not a new concept considering today's consumer-oriented focus in healthcare, but a group of plastic surgeons in Indianapolis has taken the notion one giant step further. They own the spa. In addition to writing "orders''...

Cross with wireless; Explosion of communication devices may be making us less productive.(Publisher's Letter)(Editorial)
December 20, 2004... Byline: Charles S. Lauer There is no doubt about it: When it comes to things digital I am old-school. Sure, I have a cell phone and I use e-mail. This column is being composed on a computer. But compared with the technophiles I see at...

Fiscal detours; Improper billing continues in hospice cases.(The Week In Healthcare)
December 20, 2004... Byline: Joseph Mantone Hospitals still appear to be improperly billing Medicare for hospitalizations of hospice patients, six years after a report from HHS' inspector general's office exposed irregularities. Quality-improvement...

By the Numbers.(The Week In Healthcare)(Medicare's payment error )(Brief Article)
December 20, 2004... Medicare's payment error rate was 9.3% in fiscal 2004, representing $19.9 billion in payments, down from 9.8% in fiscal 2003, CMS Administrator Mark McClellan said last week. The error rate was based on a review of 160,000 Medicare claims. The...