Modern Healthcare articles from February 2002

Modern Healthcare archives from February 2002

Other voices.(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... ``(Recently some of) the nation's top experts in cancer screening agreed that the evidence justifying mammography was shaky. It was the first judgment by authoritative independent reviewers that there may be little hard evidence to support the...

Budget - CBO: Medicare spending up.
February 4, 2002... Medicare spending will grow at an annual rate of 7.2% through 2012, with automatic annual updates to provider payments representing much of the increases, the Congressional Budget Office said in a 10-year budget outlook last week. In fact,...

Brielfy: Labor.(health care workers)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... RN vacancies in Wash. pose risk * The average vacancy rate for registered nurses in Washington state is about 12%, and shortages of nurses and other medical staff are endangering hospital operations and patient care, according to a report...

Conversions: Essent on prowl in Northeast.(Essent Healthcare Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Essent Healthcare, Nashville, had a busy week hunting acquisitions in the Northeast. The company could emerge as a white knight for three parts of the troubled CareGroup system, which operates six hospitals in Massachusetts. And after 18...

Caring for a city of immigrants.(Houston, Texas)(Brief Article)(Column)
February 4, 2002... In December the Harris County district attorney in Houston announced he was ``shelving'' his criminal investigation into the Harris County Hospital District's provision of discounted, nonemergency care to undocumented aliens residing in our...

Unforgettable lessons; The things we found out about ourselves after 9-11 won't go away.(Brief Article)(Column)
February 4, 2002... I read a profound, uplifting article in the Wall Street Journal over the Thanksgiving holiday that I can't seem to get out of my mind. The Nov. 23 column, ``What We Have Learned,'' was written by Peggy Noonan, a contributing editor and author...

Legal: Murky water; IRS probes firm doing loan pools for hospital groups.(George K. Baum and Co.)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Four state hospital associations hired an investment banking firm whose financing activities are under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service to create loan pools for their members. The firm, George K. Baum & Co., based in Kansas...

Newsmakers.(employee hiring and promotions)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Troubled Stanford gets new chief * Stanford (Calif.) Hospital and Clinics has named Martha Marsh, a 23-year healthcare veteran, as its new president and CEO, effective in April. Marsh replaces Malinda Mitchell, who retired last May. Michael...

Managed Care: Now entering Houston; WellPoint buys city's last hospital-owned HMO, plans turnaround.(Wellpoint Health Networks Inc., MethodistCare)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Continuing its buying binge, WellPoint Health Networks of Thousand Oaks, Calif., agreed late last month to acquire ailing MethodistCare, Houston's last hospital-owned HMO, for an undisclosed sum. MethodistCare is the managed-care unit of...

Ready, aim, claim: Camp readies billers for battle.(Managed Care Boot Camp, New Jersey Hospital Association, multiple topics)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... A new boot camp is designed to take timid hospital case managers, accountants and business services workers and turn them into steely eyed soldiers in the war against HMO claims denials. The New Jersey Hospital Association inaugurated its...

Too little or just right?; Bush lays his healthcare budget on the table, but Democrats--and some Republicans--say $190 billion falls short.
February 4, 2002... President Bush gave healthcare only a passing mention in his State of the Union address. But he took pains last week to publicly shape a broad yet seemingly shallow agenda on health issues, a key domestic policy area on which Republicans may be...

Late News.(industry briefs)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... PHICO Insurance to be liquidated The Pennsylvania Insurance Department got the green light from a Commonwealth Court in Harrisburg to immediately liquidate PHICO Insurance Co., Mechanicsburg, a subsidiary of the Health Alliance of...

Executives: Filling a vacancy; Leadership group formed over lack of future healthcare executives.(National Center for Healthcare Leadership)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... The scarcity of front-line workers, especially nurses, garners most of the headlines about healthcare labor woes, but a new group hopes to highlight-and mitigate-the less-talked-about shortage of future hospital leaders. The National...

Managed Care: A new level of care; Providers that offer discounts make Blue Shield of California's A list.(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Blue Shield of California is taking the tiered-coverage concept to a whole new level. Last week the San Francisco company announced that, in a controversial move, it will divide its entire hospital network into two categories, depending on...

HIMSS Roundup: IT projects often lack funding.(Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society )(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 4, 2002... Healthcare information executives aren't having a problem quantifying the benefits of information technology but do find it difficult to get funding for those IT projects. Inadequate financial support was the most significant barrier to...

HIMSS Roundup: Beyond tradition; HIMSS' new database will help with IT decisions.(Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society in June will launch a Web-accessible database of statistics for making decisions on information technology and managing IT departments at hospitals. Its HIMSS Solutions Toolkit will...

Systems: ViaHealth deal under fire; Court rules against system's plan for debt relief.(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Don't try this at home. In an apparent attempt to skirt bankruptcy proceedings and steady itself on its financial feet without creditors' interference, Rochester, N.Y.'s embattled ViaHealth has invoked an esoteric and rarely implemented...

Shades of AHERF; Debate since collapse of Enron revisits many issues raised in Pittsburgh healthcare system's high-profile bankruptcy.(Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation)
February 4, 2002... As the world gawks at the record-breaking bankruptcy of energy giant Enron Corp., healthcare financial experts can't help but recall the 1998 collapse of Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation, which raised parallel issues. ...

Suppliers: Merck plans IPO for benefits unit.(Merck-Medco)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Merck & Co., Whitehouse Station, N.J., said it plans to spin off its pharmacy benefits management subsidiary, Merck-Medco, as a publicly traded company-a sea change in strategy aimed at strengthening both businesses as their rapidly evolving...

Write to us.
February 4, 2002... Please send your letters, which should be as concise as possible, to Modern Healthcare, Letters to the Editor, 360 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60601. Letters also can be sent by fax at 312-280-3183, by e-mail at MHCedit@aol.com or through...

Physicians: 'Inappropriate' gifts waning?; Drug companies, and docs, too, rethink a practice.(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Many physicians continue to line their pockets with gifts from drug-company sales representatives, including free trips to vacation resorts, cash fees for questionable consulting work and lavish dinners at five-star restaurants. But some...

Systems: Indiana system adding two hospitals.(Parkview Health System)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... An Indiana health system is opening two adjoining hospitals, one of which is the state's first orthopedic-specialty hospital, as part of a $67 million construction project. Fort Wayne-based Parkview Health System, which owns four hospitals...

Capital spigot dripping faster.(investors slowly warming up to healthcare)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... Nearly four years since the rock-solid financial reputation of not-for-profit healthcare was marred by a historic $1.4 billion bankruptcy filing by Allegheny Health, Education and Research Foundation-contributing to a more tightfisted capital...

Quality: $10 million for patient safety.(federal funding to reduce medical errors)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... President Bush's 2003 budget plan to be released this week proposes $10 million in new federal funding for projects to reduce medical errors, bringing the department's total to $84 million, HHS announced. Joining a growing throng of...

Bioterrorism: But where will the money go?(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... The federal government is sending states $125 million to help hospitals prepare for bioterrorism. But hospitals are at the mercy of state health departments, which will have the final say on how most of the money will be used. ``I think...

It's daylight time.(disclosure)(Brief Article)
February 4, 2002... What's wrong with a little sunshine? No, not that sunshine, though in the midst of winter gloom, that's a nice thought. I mean the light that should be shining on all official records, be they government or corporate, for-profit or...

A grim outlook; Studies show shortage of healthcare workers grows.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 4, 2002... Two studies released last week painted a grim picture of healthcare staffing in this country as more than one in seven hospitals reported they do not have enough registered nurses. With the demand for medical services growing, a "severe...

Ore. upstart takes on rival.(The Week in Healthcare)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Mark Taylor A small Oregon hospital has become the latest healthcare provider to sue a larger rival in federal court alleging anticompetitive behavior. McKenzie-Willamette Hospital, a 106-bed independent community facility in...

Missouri lawyer brings a hospital to hometown.(Special Feature)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Mary Chris Jaklevic For Kerry Douglas, having a hospital in his hometown is a very personal issue. One night in 1979, Douglas rode in the ambulance that carried his father on a 45-minute journey to the nearest hospital, in...

Statement of net worth; As executive salaries keep growing bigger, some healthcare industry experts question whether associations are getting value for money.(Cover Story)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Jeff Tieman If it's a big job to run healthcare trade associations, the salaries of their chief executives show it. Those who head many of the nation's healthcare advocacy groups earned more money in 2000 than the president of the...

Setback hits state programs.(The Week in Healthcare)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Jonathan Gardner With the death of congressional efforts to pass an economic recovery package last week, public hospitals and state Medicaid programs suffered a setback in efforts to increase funding for programs covering...

New nursing group divides ANA; AARN piggybacks on CNA's success, fights for nurse-staffing ratios.(The Week in Healthcare)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Jeff Tieman State nurses who broke away from the American Nurses Association are forming a new, national organization that could broaden the influence of the aggressive and action-oriented California Nurses Association. The...

Corrections & Clarifications.(Corrections)(Correction Notice)
February 11, 2002... * In the 2001 mergers-and-acquisitions list (``Hitting the brakes,'' Jan. 14, p. 22), the status of the merger of Resurrection Health Care, Chicago, with two hospitals sponsored by Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, Des Plaines, Ill.,...

Hospitals end joint venture.(The Week in Healthcare)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Mary Chris Jaklevic St. Luke's Episcopal Health System and Methodist Health Care System in Houston plan to end their joint operation of a major medical group this month, when St. Luke's buys out Methodist's share in the clinic's...

Mystery of knee deaths solved.(The Week in Healthcare)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Byline: John Morrissey Three months after a feared outbreak of rare and deadly infections, two mysterious deaths in Minnesota after elective knee surgery turned out to be the result of the nation's No. 1 killer: heart disease. With...

Hard choices can wait; Why try to legislate on Medicare when there's an election to be run?(Opinions-Editorials)(Editorial)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Todd Sloane The time has come in Washington for some serious deliberation and meaningful decisionmaking on health policy and rising healthcare spending. Oh, wait, it's an election year. That means it's really time for some...

VA proposes deductible for some.(The Week in Healthcare)(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Jonathan Gardner Veterans' advocacy groups are criticizing the Department of Veterans Affairs' proposal to charge a $1,500-a-year deductible to veterans who don't qualify for free care because of income or service-related...

Legal victory for AMA's union group; Labor board rules that New Jersey physicians are employees, not supervisors.(The Week in Healthcare)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Michael Romano Physicians for Responsible Negotiation, the union group for doctors created in late 1999 by the American Medical Association, has struggled since birth to build a national following. Despite optimistic expectations,...

A clever disguise? Associations unite to call for universal PPO standards, but endorsement could hurt JCAHO.(The Week in Healthcare)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Laura B. Benko Citing the need for increased efficiency, the nation's two leading hospital associations have joined the American Association of Preferred Provider Organizations in its call for universal PPO credentialing standards....

Soon, it may be 'Read this and call me in the morning'.(Outliers: Asides & Insides)
February 11, 2002... If one organization has its way, physicians could soon get paid not only for providing tests and treatments, but also for the time they spend giving information to patients. Boise, Idaho-based Healthwise, a not-for-profit company that...

Call to arms; Johnson & Johnson launches new initiative in fight to ease nursing shortage.(The Week in Healthcare)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Cinda Becker and Jeff Tieman Johnson & Johnson, which between Tylenol and Band-Aids is arguably the largest supplier of tools of the nursing profession, has launched a multiyear, nationwide campaign aimed at easing the...

Scully: Everything is on the table; Healthcare industry readies itself for a year of knock-down, drag-out lobbying efforts.(The Week in Healthcare)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Ed Lovern President Bush's proposed 2003 budget, which largely steers clear of fixing provider-payment issues, set the stage for what one congressional staffer predicted would be an ``incredibly intense'' year of federal lobbying...

Turn up the volume; More patients mean healthy growth in earnings for HCA, spinoff LifePoint Hospitals.(The Week in Healthcare)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Vince Galloro Citing increased reimbursement and higher patient volume, several investor-owned hospital companies reported strong earnings growth for 2001 last week. Among them were HCA and one of its spinoff companies, LifePoint...

The path to affordability; Keeping our quality of care means finding out where costs can be reined in.(Opinions-Commentary)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Scott P. Serota The preservation of the U.S. healthcare system depends largely on our willingness to create an economic environment that is affordable while protecting quality of care. At its core, quality is defined as getting...

Beverly suggests settlement figure.(The Week in Healthcare)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Julie Piotrowski Beverly Enterprises, Fort Smith, Ark., last week offered the federal government $77.5 million to settle a billing dispute over Medicare cost reporting. Beverly officials said they believed the company's reporting...

Be prepared; Murphy's Law often rears its ugly head during speeches, especially after dinner.(Publisher's Letter)(Editorial)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Charles S. Lauer One of the most important skills any leader must develop is public speaking. By public I mean everything from a formal speech to a presentation to colleagues or the board. Being able to effectively communicate...

Ties that bind; Many docs have financial connections to pharmaceutical firms.(The Week in Healthcare)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Michael Romano The pharmaceutical industry does not believe financial relationships between doctors and drug companies compromise clinical-practice recommendations. ``The fact that the authors of some clinical-practice...

Earnings at a premium; Rate increases fuel gains for HMOs hit by rising costs, faltering economy.(The Week in Healthcare)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Laura B. Benko Double-digit premium increases are boosting HMOs' bottom lines even as rising medical costs and the weak economy continue to pummel the managed-care industry. Last week, four leading health insurers-Humana,...

Other Voices.(Opinions-Editorials)
February 11, 2002... ``Wrapping his budget in the flag and himself in a bomber jacket, President Bush has presented a vision of government that is heavy on guns, light on butter and chock-full of the old-time religion of tax cuts.... The (budget) choices would be...

2002 Trustees of the Year; Ohio executive works to keep patients, system healthy.(Special Feature)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Mary Chris Jaklevic Though many healthcare systems have been hit with losses and ratings downgrades in recent years, Catholic Healthcare Partners stands as an exception. The Cincinnati-based system, which operates hospitals in...

Who's minding the store? With the feds scaling back, state attorneys general are left to fill antitrust gap.(The Week in Healthcare)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Mark Taylor The next government antitrust subpoena demanding information on a hospital merger could bear a postmark from a nearby ZIP code instead of from the nation's capital. In light of recent developments at the federal...

At your service; After years of feeble attempts to improve customer relations, hospitals are turning to the professionals and spending big bucks to keep their patients happy.(Special Report)
February 11, 2002... Byline: Michael Romano America's hospitals have been on a "customer relations" kick for years, pledging to pamper patients with superior service and all the first-class amenities and attentive care of a luxury hotel. Unfortunately, many of...

Late News.
February 11, 2002... Iasis problems move south The troubles of Iasis Healthcare Corp., Franklin, Tenn., have shifted south from Utah to Arizona. Iasis has slashed its Phoenix-area workforce by 13% since September, part of a 5% reduction companywide, said David...

Call to arms; Johnson & Johnson launches new initiative in fight to ease nursing shortage.(Brief Article)
February 11, 2002... Johnson & Johnson, which between Tylenol and Band-Aids is arguably the largest supplier of tools of the nursing profession, has launched a multiyear, nationwide campaign aimed at easing the much-discussed workforce shortage in hospitals and...

Late News.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 11, 2002... Iasis problems move south The troubles of Iasis Healthcare Corp., Franklin, Tenn., have shifted south from Utah to Arizona. Iasis has slashed its Phoenix-area workforce by 13% since September, part of a 5% reduction companywide, said David...

Uneasy truce; Catholic-run public hospital to walk fine line.(Brackenridge Hospital)(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... To accommodate recently revised religious directives that apply to Roman Catholic-run hospitals, officials in Austin, Texas, have approved a plan to convert one floor of Brackenridge Hospital to a city-owned and managed ``hospital within a...

Newsmakers.(includes multiple appointments)(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... Finally, a Mount Sinai chief * It took only about 18 months, but Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York, has found someone to replace John Rowe, M.D.-well, sort of replace him. Kenneth Berns, M.D., will return to New York from Florida to...

Getting on the right track; Better supply management means a better bottom line, and healthcare is catching on to software that maximizes efficiency.(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... A long-ignored class of business information systems has suddenly caught fire in healthcare, sparked by the prospect of saving millions of dollars through better management of supplies, personnel and finances. An interlocking set of...

Quietly working on quality; Hospitals, aided by associations, are addressing errors.(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... For too long we in the hospital community have been silent or reactive on medical errors, allowing others to define how and where we address one of the primary objectives of our healthcare system: To first do no harm. The important news,...

Dana-Farber loses suit.(doctor sues Dana-Farber Cancer Institute)(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... A well-known Boston cancer hospital said it is reviewing its legal options after a jury last week awarded physician Lois Ayash, M.D., $4.2 million and determined the hospital broke its contract with her after she sued the hospital in the wake...

Steamrolling ahead ; Two N.Y. hospitals don't let a little paperwork get in the way.(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... Two upstate New York hospitals with a recent history of putting the cart before the horse have announced plans to build a $200 million, 350-bed replacement hospital, even though they also admit they are still at least six months away from a...

Late News.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 18, 2002... Seniors paying more for care The sickest seniors in Medicare+Choice plans paid 62% more out of pocket in 2001 than in 1999, reaching an average cost of $3,578, as HMOs raised premiums and increased cost-sharing. Even beneficiaries in good...

States search for ways to trim back spending; Officials consider rollbacks, delays in attempt to minimize effects of federal Medicaid cuts.(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... Confronted with sudden deficits, states are considering a raft of proposals to rein in Medicaid spending, including rollbacks or delays of expansions passed when state coffers were overflowing. Providers, claiming they're already...

Briefly: Hospitals.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 18, 2002... It was a very bad year Allina Hospitals and Clinics, Minneapolis, finished the year 2001 $71.3 million in the hole on $1.7 billion in revenue, officials reported last week. The majority of the loss-$53 million-was attributed to one-time...

Before the reviews, criticism from the Blues.(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... The Chicago-based Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association did some advance work last week in hopes of skirting negative publicity from the Feb. 15 release of John Q, the latest movie to bash managed care. The movie stars Denzel Washington as a...

When more means less; Utah gets federal approval limiting Medicaid services to some to provide a basic health package to 25,000 low-income uninsured.(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... Utah hospitals are ``cautiously optimistic'' about a controversial new Medicaid waiver demonstration project recently unveiled by HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson and Utah Gov. Michael Leavitt that would expand health insurance coverage to 25,000...

Health Care Hall of Fame Past Inductees.
February 18, 2002... Bob Ball As commissioner of the Social Security Administration from 1962 to 1973, Ball played a critical role in creating and implementing Medicare. From the moment President Kennedy appointed him to the SSA post, Ball made it his business...

Looking for a breakthrough; Premier's hospitals collaborate on quality initiatives.(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... Our work on quality within the Premier healthcare alliance has uncovered a critical pattern: High quality and cost efficiency go hand-in-hand. Consider coronary-artery-bypass-graft surgery: We have found that if all Premier hospitals...

A new practice; Ludlam among pioneers in healthcare law.(Jim Ludlum)
February 18, 2002... Jim Ludlam's first case in healthcare also was his first as an accredited lawyer-the very day he passed the California bar exam on Jan. 17, 1940, fresh from Harvard Law School. Just after reporting for his first day of work at a...

Briefly: Physicians.(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... Data hunt a wicked Web: study * Much of the information about doctors and medical care on the Internet is incomplete, inaccurate or so poorly organized as to be almost useless, according to a gloomy assessment by researchers at the...

Briefly: Legal.(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... Some money for AHERF victims * A U.S. District Court judge and a federal bankruptcy judge in Pittsburgh last week approved a $93.7 million settlement that will partly repay the private and public victims of the 1998 bankruptcy of Allegheny...

The right prescription; Health system's medical practice will turn profit despite hurdles.(Parkview Health System)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 18, 2002... As sure as the change of seasons, it's all but certain that Parkview Health System in Fort Wayne, Ind., will report a substantial monetary loss this year on its 33-member primary-care physician practice. But through a productivity-based...

Attorneys general take on HMOs.(health maintenance organizations)(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... State attorneys general are waging a courtroom assault on the managed-care industry that could force HMOs nationwide to change the way they do business. Some industry observers, however, caution that these aggressive legal tactics could...

Kansas nixes Anthem-Blues deal.(purchase of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas)(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... In a landmark decision, Kansas Insurance Commissioner Kathleen Sebelius rejected Indianapolis-based Anthem's proposed acquisition of 750,000-member Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas last week, arguing that the deal would result in increased...

Suppose feds don't depose; HCA seeks to prevent employee testimony.(Medicare fraud trial )(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... HCA wants to prevent attorneys for the U.S. Justice Department and whistleblowers from deposing more than 80 of its current and former employees for the company's upcoming civil Medicare fraud trial until the Justice Department identifies...

Coming clean; N.Y. hospital to restate finance results.(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... Rating agencies said they're monitoring the finances of a New York hospital that took the unusual step last week of disclosing to bondholders that it misstated past financial results. The 332-bed Nyack (N.Y.) Hospital said its net assets...

Utah could open the floodgates.(Lss reimbursement from state-run health insurance programs for hospitals)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
February 18, 2002... Medicaid waivers, such as the one approved for Utah last week, have all the makings of a perfect storm that could soak hospitals and other providers with less reimbursement from state-run health insurance programs. Utah's five-year...

Quality is a mandate; AHA task force latest bid to improve patient safety.(American Hospital Association's Quality and Patient Safety Task Force)(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... Despite the many fiscal and operational challenges facing them, America's hospitals view improving quality and patient safety as top priorities. This is an issue of public trust, keeping the promise that is inherent in every hospital's...

Following the money; Reporting on pay at not-for-profits is key to knowing value of dues dollars.(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... Few situations strike as much fear into the hearts of not-for-profit healthcare executives as when an inquisitive reporter says to them, ``I'd like a copy of your Form 990, please.'' They know why you're asking. You know why you're asking. You...

Fiscal prophet; Hartney led charge in healthcare finance.(Sister Mary Gerald Hartney)(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... If it seems like Sister Mary Gerald Hartney has been around healthcare forever, that's understandable. Since early in the last century, the 91-year-old Roman Catholic nun-everyone calls her Sister Gerald-has been a driving force in...

'It's like Enron'; FPA, other physician practice management companies hear death knell.(Brief Article)
February 18, 2002... The criminal indictment of bankrupt FPA Medical Management's top financial officer last week was just another round of bad news for physician practice management companies, which by now are little more than an unpleasant memory for most...

Other Voices.(Brief Article)(Letter to the Editor)
February 18, 2002... ``It seems that any time social conservatives want to do something beneficial and compassionate for poor people it raises a stink because it supposedly is for unseemly, even devious reasons. Consider the Bush administration's recently announced...

Model of efficiency; Davis helped make healthcare a 'system'.(Michael Davis)(Obituary)
February 18, 2002... For the better part of his 91 years, Michael Davis rattled the medical community with his relentless calls for change. "Can you imagine a world without health insurance?" asks Robert Sigmond, a 2001 Hall of Fame inductee. "When (Davis) got...

How we can expand coverage; Extending health insurance to millions of uninsured is a matter of collective will.
February 25, 2002... There are serious and widening gaps in America's healthcare safety net. One out of seven people lacks health insurance. The cost of insurance is shooting up by double digits. The federal budget is in deficit. With all these problems, how can we...