Modern Healthcare articles from June 2004

Modern Healthcare archives from June 2004

Left in the lurch; With Corrigan's recusal from hospital cases, HHS' inspector general's office has a gap at the top after months of indecision.
June 7, 2004... Byline: Mark Taylor HHS' inspector general's office saved taxpayers $16.8 billion in the first six months of fiscal 2004, nearly $4 billion more than during the same period last year, according to the agency's semiannual report. But...

Howard Dean to aid New York union in home health strike.(Outliers: Asides & Insides)
June 7, 2004... For those of you who were wondering whatever happened to Howard Dean, the former Democratic presidential candidate, Vermont governor and family physician, here's one answer: Dean has resurfaced in radio and television advertisements in New...

New and improved; JCAHO's revamped report provides accreditation results in a new format.(The Week In Healthcare)(Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations)
June 7, 2004... Byline: John Morrissey Call it an extreme accreditation makeover. Starting next month, hospitals and other healthcare organizations will have to answer to the public as well as to the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare...

Charity has its benefits; Provision lowers malpractice caps for Texas hospitals.(The Week In Healthcare)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Mary Chris Jaklevic Mmore than 60 Texas hospitals have applied to prune their malpractice liability by using a little-known provision in the state's new tort reform law that grants lower caps for noneconomic damage awards to...

Where the money goes.(Physician Affairs)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2004... A comprehensive breakdown shows what a typical medical group spends each year for everything from doctors' salaries to rent. The figures were compiled as part of an annual survey of costs by the Medical Group Management Association. ...

On the move ...(News Makers)
June 7, 2004... The General Accounting Office and U.S. Comptroller General David Walker named Arnold Milstein as the newest member of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. Milstein, a physician and medical director of the Pacific Business Group on Health,...

Judge bucks abortion act; S.F. court: Law illegal; high court battle may loom.(The Week In Healthcare)(National Abortion Federation cases)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Mark Taylor After U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft dropped his effort to subpoena the medical records of patients who allegedly had a controversial abortion procedure performed at seven hospitals, a San Francisco federal judge...

3 out of 5 ain't bad; CHW signs master agreement with SEIU.(Regional News)(Catholic Healthcare West)(Service Employees International Union)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Vince Galloro Three down, and now two to go? With last week's signing of a master agreement between Catholic Healthcare West and California's largest healthcare union, CHW joins Kaiser Permanente and Tenet Healthcare Corp. in...

Smile. You're at work; When entering the real world, young people should adopt the right attitude.(Publisher's Letter)(Column)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Charles S. Lauer As this graduation season winds down, another generation of young people is let loose into the real world, some anxious to start careers while others loll about, thinking that a job is about to be handed to them or...

South.(Regional News)(Sylacauga Health Care Authority)(St. Agnes HealthCare)(Baltimore Medical System)
June 7, 2004... BIRMINGHAM, Ala.-Baptist Health System began the first phase of its restructuring with the announcement last week that it will sell 101-bed Coosa Valley Baptist Medical Center in Sylacauga, Ala., to the Sylacauga Health Care Authority, which...

Midwest.(Regional News)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2004... MOUNT VERNON, Ill.-A southern Illinois hospital agreed late last month to pay $15,000 to settle patient-dumping allegations with HHS' inspector general. In May, 126-bed St. Mary's Good Samaritan in Mount Vernon, which is owned by SSM Health...

West.(Regional News)
June 7, 2004... SEATTLE-Providence Health System has re-signed with hospital cooperative VHA in a three-year agreement that departs from the traditional group-purchasing model of the last five years to establish a customized arrangement with VHA and its supply...

Not exempt from scrutiny; Not-for-profits' actions triggered array of challenges to tax status.(Opinions)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Neil McLaughlin One sure lesson of history is that a lack of money leads to an inflammation of the body politic. When the nation is awash in easy money, as it was during the 1990s, extravagance in places where it shouldn't exist is...

Some assurances; Gray areas remain on billing issues.(discounts for uninsured patients)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Tony Fong Despite federal regulators' renewed efforts to assure hospitals that offering discounts to the uninsured does not violate regulations, some providers remain confused about when such practices may expose them to federal...

Fuel to the fire; HealthSouth review confirms fraud; no jail for execs.(The Week In Healthcare)(HEALTHSOUTH Corp.)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Julie Piotrowski The already tarnished reputation of HealthSouth Corp. was further sullied last week by an internal forensic review confirming estimates of a multibillion-dollar accounting fraud at the giant rehabilitation and...

Northeast.(Regional News)(Health Professionals and Allied Employees)(Bergen Regional Medical Center)(New Haven Hospital )(Erie County Medical Center )
June 7, 2004... PARAMUS, N.J.-Nurses at 1,039-bed Bergen Regional Medical Center went on strike last week after reaching an impasse on staffing ratios, salaries and pension benefits. The action involves some 425 nurses represented by Health Professionals and...

A different type of rehab; New CEO sets out to restore HealthSouth's fiscal health, disperse cloud of controversy.(Healthcare Profile)(Jay Grinney)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Vince Galloro You might say that Jay Grinney was training for his new job leading HealthSouth Corp. during his part-time job in college. Grinney worked at least 25 hours per week on a farm near St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn....

Other Voices.(Opinions)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2004... "The new (Medicare prescription) drug cards... should help some seniors struggling with high drug prices. But there's far more at stake here. The point of these cards is not only to provide crucial discounts, but to push drug companies to...

Turan heads for door; After 31/2 years of tumult, Nassau chief exits.(Regional News)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Cinda Becker Richard Turan announced last week that he was stepping down after 31/2 tumultuous years as president and chief executive officer at the quasi-public Nassau Health Care Corp. in suburban East Meadow, N.Y. Noting...

Deja vu; Mississippi system loses bid to build new facility.(Regional News)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Michael Romano St. Dominic Health Services in Jackson, Miss., has temporarily lost its bid to build a new facility in the fast-growing suburb of Madison after a judge noted that the hospital derailed a similar project two years...

A matter of quality; N.J. hospital association launches ICU initiative.(Late News)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Cinda Becker The New Jersey Hospital Association is launching its most ambitious effort to date under the umbrella of its 2-year-old Quality Institute, an initiative aimed at reducing death, infection and average length of stay in...

Late News; Bon Secours CEO to retire.
June 7, 2004... Four months after Bon Secours Health System disclosed a federal investigation, the system said President and Chief Executive Officer Christopher Carney will retire in March 2005. Carney, 57, was named CEO of the 24-hospital Marriottsville,...

Taking the lead on IT; Bush has ambitious goals but little funding.(The Week In Healthcare)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Jeff Tieman With a war in Iraq still under way and a presidential election on the horizon, computerizing healthcare may not seem like an issue that would get time in the Oval Office. Surprising some and meeting the long-held...

Rhode Island gets connected; State has plan to connect every provider, patient.(The Week In Healthcare)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Joseph Conn Rhode Island is a state with 15 hospitals, 3,942 physicians and 1,545 square miles. You can drive across it on the diagonal-all 59 miles from Westerly to Woonsocket-in just 67 minutes. But it is a state with giant...

Immigrant care costs hospitals.(The Week In Healthcare)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Jeff Tieman As the CMS grapples with how to pay hospitals for the illegal immigrants they treat, a new federal report concluded that the task is a daunting one. Last year's Medicare reform law set aside $1 billion over five...

Nominations due for 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare ranking.(The Week In Healthcare)
June 7, 2004... This is the final week Modern Healthcare is accepting nominations for this year's 100 Most Powerful People in Healthcare recognition program, the third annual ranking. Readers can visit our Web site, modernhealthcare.com, to nominate healthcare...

Cyber docs; Blues adding more physicians for Net consultations.(Physician Affairs)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts said late last month that it would increase by more than three times the number of participating physicians in its year-old pilot program to pay for Internet-based...

Large claims payments in liability suits reach 8%.(Physician Affairs)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician The percentage of claims payments in excess of $1 million in medical liability lawsuits has doubled to about 8% since 1978, a trend that underscores concerns that lawsuits are primarily to blame for doctors'...

Wyoming hospital board reverses plan for center.(Physician Affairs)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician Sheridan (Wyo.) Memorial Hospital board members voted late last month to reverse their decision to build the hospital's own outpatient surgery center. Hospital board member Ernie Schmidt said the board took the...

N.J. malpractice bill called 'initial step'.(Physician Affairs)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician While a New Jersey medical malpractice reform bill passed the state Legislature late last month without the $250,000 cap on noneconomic damages sought by the state medical society, the bill, awaiting the signature...

Drop in doctor payments foreseen without action.(Physician Affairs)(Brief Article)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician Physician payments are likely to decline by 40% from 2005 to 2014 unless Congress or the CMS act to change the formula Medicare uses to calculate annual adjustments. That's the prediction made in a letter sent late...

In the spotlight.(News Makers)
June 7, 2004... * The Cleveland Clinic Foundation announced that physician Delos Cosgrove, 63, the clinic's chairman of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery, will replace another physician, Floyd Loop, as CEO effective January 2005. Cosgrove and Loop will work...

Stronger at the net; Modern Healthcare's annual survey shows healthcare systems are posting rosier numbers both operationally and on the bottom line.(Special Feature)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Vince Galloro At first blush, the results of Modern Healthcare's annual Hospital Systems Survey seem to bear out what hospital lobbyists have been saying-it's getting tougher to make money on operations. For the 177...

Straight Talk: Enterprise-wide Collaboration is Key to Successful Reengineering.(Straight Talk)(Interview)
June 7, 2004... Byline: Modern Healthcare and PricewaterhouseCoopers When employees from clinical operations, process improvement, finance and health information management join forces with physicians to reengineer processes, they wind up with a successful...

More work needed on workforce; Industry efforts are on target but they must be intensified as boomers retire.(Opinions, healthcare jobs)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Todd Sloane There's a memorable scene in the movie "The Electric Horseman'' in which the director of a spectacularly inane Las Vegas variety show asks a down-and-out celebrity cowboy to recite a promo for a breakfast cereal. When...

Turning to IT for answers; CEO winners know the power and importance of information.(Supplement: CEO IT Achievement Award)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Charles S. Lauer, Publisher This is the second year of the Modern Healthcare/HIMSS CEO IT Achievement Awards. In my opinion, they are among the most prestigious awards that can be bestowed on any chief executive officer. After all,...

Ratio fight goes national; As Calif. adjusts, backers seek to replicate success.(Workforce Report 2004)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Laura B. Benko Even as nurses and hospitals in California continue to debate the effects of the state's new landmark nurse-staffing law, momentum is building behind similar legislation in several other states. California is the...

A threat to foreign workers; Changes to visa programs hit key staffing solution.(Workforce Report 2004)(foreign medical workers)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Julie Piotrowski When the isolated Appalachian community of Grantsville, W.Va., was forced to padlock the emergency room at its county-operated Calhoun General Hospital for 100 days in 1995 because there were no physicians, local...

Malpractice blues in the Bay State.(Physician Affairs)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... Massachusetts voters have come to the same conclusion that physicians have held for a decade: Medical malpracitce insurance costs are a serious problem in the Bay State, according to a recent phone poll conducted by the Center for State and...

Taking initiative on training; Providers push expansion of nurse education.(Workforce Report 2004)(United Medical Center)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Cinda Becker In 1999, with a long-feared nursing shortage having hit Cheyenne, Wyo., and with regional hospitals competing for the same limited pool of employees, Shirley Harris, vice president of nursing at 195-bed United Medical...

One answer: productivity; A worsening worker shortage forces providers to use IT, other efficiencies to meet demand.(Workforce Report 2004)(nursing profession)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Patrick Reilly Veronica Maras knew her hospital had to change if it was ever going to have a culture where nurses would feel that their top priority was patient care. The 759 nurses at Hamot Medical Center, Erie, Pa., where...

Late News; Not-for-profit margins up.
June 14, 2004... Operating margins for the nation's strongest not-for-profit healthcare systems last year reached their highest levels since 1997, while weaker hospitals saw worse results, according to Standard & Poor's median financial indicators. The ratings...

Other Voices.(Opinions)(views on obesity)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... "Groucho Marx quipped, `Who are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?' His wisdom comes to mind when self-evident truths are questioned by heretics bearing statistics. Jeffrey Friedman of Rockefeller University says today's thinking about...

One doctor's tort reform: Stop caring for the lawyers.(Outliers: Asides & Insides)
June 14, 2004... For years, doctors have blamed greedy lawyers for driving up the price of malpractice insurance. Now, one tough-minded South Carolina physician has come up with a novel approach to dealing with those attorneys: Refuse to treat them as...

For sale; Pa. hospital may buy itself back, block sale to rival.(The Week In Healthcare)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Mark Taylor A provision in a 1998 affiliation agreement between Lee Regional Medical Center in Johnstown, Pa., and Pittsburgh-based UPMC Health System may allow the former board of the western Pennsylvania hospital to buy itself...

How the winners were chosen; Participation by CEOs, CIOs key to award program's success.(Supplement: CEO IT Achievement Award)
June 14, 2004... Byline: David Burda, Editor Welcome to our second annual supplement profiling the winners of the CEO IT Achievement Award, sponsored by Modern Healthcare and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. On the following...

The leadership factor; Award winners know IT is more than just hardware and software.(Supplement: CEO IT Achievement Award)
June 14, 2004... Byline: H. Stephen Lieber On behalf of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and all of its members, I am pleased to recognize the three recipients of the 2004 CEO IT Achievement Award. Once again, HIMSS joins with...

IT at your service; Schaeffer sees unified data system as a key solution.(Supplement: CEO IT Achievement Award)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Laura B. Benko Tired of watching physicians shuffling folders and scribbling on prescription pads, Leonard Schaeffer decided it was time to jump-start the medical community's move into the digital age. In January, the chairman...

Retirement community; With hospital CEOs leaving office at younger ages, the ACHE prepares to launch a yearlong study to determine turnover impact.(chief executive officers)(American College of Healthcare Executives)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Michael Romano To many people, the job of a hospital chief executive looks very attractive-a generous salary, prestige in the community, political clout and the personal satisfaction that comes with helping others. So why is it...

Summertime grilling; Lawmakers question WellPoint execs on bonuses.(The Week In Healthcare)(Wellpoint Health Networks Inc.)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Laura B. Benko Top brass from WellPoint Health Networks were put on the defensive last week at a special legislative hearing in California over the company's much-criticized plans to pay out as much as $600 million to its...

Briefly: chains.(The Week In Healthcare)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... Ochsner forms joint venture * Ardent Health Services, Nashville, and Ochsner Clinic Foundation, New Orleans, said last week they have agreed to form a 50-50 joint venture to operate Summit Hospital, Baton Rouge, La. Financial terms were...

Targeting quality; Hastings sees IT as mighty weapon to improve care.(Supplement: CEO IT Achievement Award)(healthcare)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Linda Wilson G. Richard Hastings, president and chief executive officer of St. Luke's Health System, has long considered information technology to be a potent weapon in the battle to improve quality and efficiency. While in the...

Pulling it together; Pelham's leadership put Trinity at cutting edge.(Supplement: CEO IT Achievement Award)(healthcare)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Elizabeth Gardner The big electrical blackout of 2003 found Port Huron, Mich., in the dark-except for the soft glow of hundreds of computer screens at Mercy Hospital, where a backup generator had kicked in to support the new...

Minority hires still lagging.(Workforce Report 2004)(ethnic disparity in the healthcare system)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Michael Romano One way to grow the healthcare workforce is to recruit more minorities to help care for an increasingly diverse patient population. Everyone in the industry has talked for years about doing just that. Why then has...

Second coming; New chain's success will depend on deals.(The Week In Healthcare)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Vince Galloro History has shown that new investor-owned hospital chains are often born out of other companies' demise or turmoil. Charles Martin Jr. formed Vanguard Health Systems after he sold OrNda HealthCorp to Tenet...

Is the price right? Hospitals spend less on services but charge more.(The Week In Healthcare, medical care spending)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Tony Fong A month after the CMS raised its average reimbursements to hospitals, a study released last week reported that 2003 saw the highest one-year spike in at least a decade in hospital prices, even as overall hospital and...

Data delivered for Calif. pay for performance plan.(Physician Affairs)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician Data for a massive California pay-for-performance program involving six health plans, 235 participating physician organizations and 7 million plan enrollees have been submitted. The final deadline for the data was...

IT expansion; HIMSS' acquisition targets vendor members.(The Week In Healthcare)(Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society)
June 14, 2004... Byline: John Morrissey The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society continued its evolution into a group serving information technology vendors as much as providers with its plans to acquire a database company that sells IT...

Rewriting the rules; Transcriptionsists, radiologists hear call for changes.(Outsourcing Trends)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Julie Piotrowski When a medical transcriptionist contracted to work for the University of California-San Francisco Medical Center threatened last October to post patients' medical records online if she wasn't paid money that she...

Dress for success; Even when it's hot, business attire should be fit for a rainmaker.(Publisher's Letter)(corporate behavior)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Charles S. Lauer It was hot last week in my hometown of Chicago, and many people downtown were dressed minimally. That's fine for those who don't need to interact with clients or customers, but many people do have to be ready for...

Nomineees.(Supplement: CEO IT Achievement Award)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... Modern Healthcare and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society would like to thank the following healthcare executives who were nominated for this year's CEO IT Achievement Award. We applaud their commitment to using...

Some relief in New Jersey; Law offers tort, insurance and health system reforms.(Physician Affairs)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician New Jersey Gov. James McGreevey signed a bill last week with tort, insurance and healthcare system reforms aimed at containing malpractice premiums while ensuring high-quality care for patients. The New Jersey...

Wyo. Legislature devoting July session to malpractice.(Physician Affairs)(Brief Article)
June 14, 2004... Wyoming lawmakers have voted overwhelmingly to convene a weeklong special session next month to consider reforms to the state's medical malpractice regulations. The session is scheduled to begin July 12. The Legislature this year rejected...

Many hats; Execs on board gain insight, cash and criticism.
June 14, 2004... Byline: Michael Romano While some hospital executives are cashing out, others are cashing in. Joseph Swedish, the president and chief executive officer of Englewood, Colo.-based Centura Health, was named earlier this month to the...

A study best forgotten; Moderating costs aren't good news for an industry in need of reform.(Opinions)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Todd Sloane Despite an apparent slowdown in the annual increase in U.S. healthcare costs-to only about twice the rate of general inflation-there is little cause for celebration. Yes, a recent study's finding of a 7.4% health...

Tenet bond sale raises questions.(The Week In Healthcare)(Tenet Healthcare Corp.)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Vince Galloro Tenet Healthcare Corp. sold $1 billion in bonds last week, raising suspicions that the Santa Barbara, Calif., company is closing in on a global settlement of an array of federal investigations. Tenet officials,...

Restring the safety net; Incremental changes aren't enough; a new system of care is needed.(Opinions)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Thomas Chapman Public hospitals have become the last thread of the safety net in treating the poor, the uninsured, legal immigrants and undocumented workers. These clinics and emergency rooms struggle to treat a host of illnesses...

Other Voices.(Opinions)(Letter to the Editor)
June 21, 2004... "Avastin and Erbitux... in combination with other chemotherapy drugs can shrink tumors, restrain tumor growth and, in the case of Avastin, extend life by a few months in some patients with colon cancer.... There is just one big problem: Both...

Managing malpractice.(Physician Affairs)(Brief Article)
June 21, 2004... The majority of Americans say they favor creating special health courts to be used for medical malpractice lawsuits, according to a new survey by Harris Interactive, a market-research and consulting firm. The survey, conducted from May 13 to...

Well-kept secret; Despite a lack of clearly defined standards, hospitals are under increasing pressure to publicly report charity-care figures.
June 21, 2004... Byline: Mary Chris Jaklevic Amid national outrage over the treatment of uninsured patients, hospitals are under pressure to do something many have long resisted: disclose exactly how much free care they give to people who can't afford to...

No deterrent; Execs' sentences may not discourage future offenses.(The Week In Healthcare)(executives)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Mark Taylor According to a professor who has studied white-collar crime and sentencing guidelines, prison terms handed down last week to two former healthcare executives may not deter similar criminal conduct by their peers. A...

Late News; Feds probe 3 W.Va. hospitals.(Bluefield Regional Medical Center)(Charleston Area Medical Center)(Princeton Community Hospital)
June 21, 2004... The Justice Department opened an antitrust investigation into a heart and cancer-care agreement between three West Virginia hospitals. The probe was disclosed as the American Hospital Association requested that federal agencies ease up on their...

Really special treatment; AHA seeks update on federal antitrust statements.(The Week In Healthcare)(American Hospital Association)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Mark Taylor As its members face increased market clout from consolidating insurance companies, the American Hospital Association wants the government to expand the antitrust protections that fueled hospitals' consolidation and...

On the move ...(News Makers)(health care industry appointments)
June 21, 2004... R. David Yost, president and CEO of pharmaceutical distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp., has resigned from Aetna's board of directors, citing a conflict of interest created by the health insurer's pharmacy benefit management business. "As...

Mississippi plans to cut 65,000 Medicaid enrollees.(Physician Affairs)(Brief Article)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Modern Physician With a sluggish economy and an ever-tightening state budget, Mississippi is cutting Medicaid eligibility to 100% of the poverty level amid protests from some lawmakers who say the changes from the current 135% of...

Formidable foe; CalPERS fights to block WellPoint-Anthem merger.(The Week In Healthcare)(California Public Employees' Retirement System, WellPoint Health Networks, Anthem Alliance Health Insurance Co.)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Laura B. Benko In perhaps the biggest threat yet to Anthem's planned takeover of WellPoint Health Networks, the nation's largest public pension fund vowed last week to fight the $16 billion deal, citing excessive executive pay...

Report bolsters providers' case.(The Week In Healthcare)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Jeff Tieman The hospital community and some Democratic governors last week used a new study on the uninsured to bolster their case that the growing problem will make it harder for providers to meet their community obligations. ...

Singing praise; New Florida law satisfies hospitals, health plans.(The Week In Healthcare)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Vince Galloro Florida hospitals and health plans both sang the praises of a new state law signed last week by Gov. Jeb Bush, although they weren't always singing from the same hymn book. The law requires hospitals and...

Attacking abuse; Lawsuits plague not-for-profits, AHA.(American Hospital Association)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Mary Chris Jaklevic Hospitals reacted with resentment last week at getting the same legal treatment as the marketers of tobacco and asbestos. Charging them with abusive billing and collection practices, attorneys sued 13...

Sounding an alarm; Healthcare groups protest possible spending caps.(The Week In Healthcare)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Tony Fong As the fiscal 2005 budget remained stalled in the Senate last week, the healthcare community mobi- lized opposition to new proposals House Republicans are crafting to alleviate concerns among GOP conservatives about the...

Taking a closer look; AMA studying impact of specialty hospitals.(The Week In Healthcare)(American Medical Association)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Michael Romano The American Medical Association plans to conduct its own comprehensive study of how physician-owned specialty hospitals affect the quality of care, patient-referral patterns and the economic viability of community...

A new public face.(Special Report)(public-benefit corporations in New York State)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Cinda Becker The only public hospital in Buffalo, N.Y., bought a piece of its independence from the county last January, following in the footsteps of several hospitals around the state that in recent years have tried the same...

Ethics aren't so instant after group hears from the experts.(Outliers: Asides & Insides)(America's Health Insurance Plans)(J. Chris Hawk on malpractice lawyers)
June 21, 2004... The 1,100 attending the Catholic Health Association's annual conference in Chicago had a chance to replicate an "American Idol'' audience and vote for their favorite choices. Only instead of punching in a young talent of choice, the audience...

Beware of conflicts of interest; Even the appearance of a conflict can tarnish a stalwart leader's reputation.(Publisher's Letter)
June 21, 2004... Byline: Charles S. Lauer I've been thinking about values lately: sacrifice, dedication, ethics and courage. This started when I reread Tom Brokaw's popular book, The Greatest Generation, which chronicles the stories of the American troops...