Modern Healthcare articles from March 2009

Modern Healthcare archives from March 2009

Partners taps Gottlieb; Boston system picks successor to retiring Mongan.(The Week in Healthcare)(Partners HealthCare System appoints Gary Gottlieb as president and chief executive officer)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Gregory Blesch Partners HealthCare System in Boston named Gary Gottlieb to succeed James Mongan as president and chief executive officer. Mongan, 66, plans to retire at the end of 2009 after seven years in the position....

No alms for ACEP; Emergency doc group off-base with funding request to feds.(Opinion)(American College of Emergency Physicians)
March 2, 2009... Byline: David Burda As you read this, special-interest groups are crawling over each other in our nation's capital to grab their share of federal bailout money, using the current economic crisis as justification. One of the more...

ER assistance requested; Congress eyes IT to pay for department pay bump.(The Week in Healthcare)(electronic records)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Jennifer Lubell Lawmakers who want to offer a 10% Medicare reimbursement increase for emergency department care are looking to health information technology adoption of all things to offset that pay bump. Last week, a...

Midwest.(Regional News)(Henry Ford Health System plans to open new hospital)(Jim Doyle signed a law of hospital tax that will increase the state's Medicaid reimbursement )(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... WEST BLOOMFIELD, Mich.-On March 15, Henry Ford Health System plans to open Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital, its seventh hospital and the first new one the system has built since Henry Ford Hospital (now with 768 beds) opened in Detroit in...

Boosting nursing profile; Underpaid faculty causing shortage, group claims.(The Week in Healthcare)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Joe Carlson Though nurses and providers may understand that the nurse shortage has its roots in the scarcity of nursing college faculty, the public, by and large, does not. That's why 21 organizations from outside the world of...

Spurned in Texas; Supreme Court rejects group's price-fix challenge.(The Week in Healthcare)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Gregg Blesch The U.S. Supreme Court killed the all-but-dead hopes of many rooting for a Texas physician association that fought the Federal Trade Commission's conclusion that its role in coordinating contract offers between members...

Adjusting budgets; Providers look to stay in the black during recession.(The Week in Healthcare)(Report)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Jennifer Lubell Healthcare spending projections released last week by the CMS confirm what providers already know: The recession is slowing growth, forcing them to come up with ways to try to stay out of the red. The study,...

Webinar.(Special Report)
March 2, 2009... Investor-owned hospitals: Will chains find profits increasingly elusive? There's still time to register for Modern Healthcare's inaugural editorial webinar-on challenges facing investor-owned hospitals-set for 10 a.m. CT, Wednesday, March...

Traumatic experience; Georgians eye more funds for emergency services.(Regional News)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Jean DerGurahian Several hundred residents, emergency medical-service providers and trauma survivors appeared at a rally to support funding for a statewide trauma network in Georgia. The Feb. 23 rally, dubbed Trauma Day, was the...

Grappling with suicide; New Washington law poses dilemma for providers.(The Week in Healthcare)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Rebecca Vesely Providers in Washington state are grappling with the complex issues surrounding the dying process as they decide whether to participate in allowing terminally ill patients to end their own lives under a new law that...

Corrections & Clarifications.(Corrections)(Correction notice)
March 2, 2009... A Feb. 23 story, "Comparison analysis,'' (p. 10) incorrectly identified the New England Healthcare Institute.

Seeking alternatives; Providers take a variety of avenues in drive for capital.(Strictly Finance)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Melanie Evans Strapped healthcare borrowers are still finding limited alternatives for raising cash necessary to invest in the sector's capital-heavy operations. But options are still out there. Tight credit continues to leave...

`Safety net is struggling'; Report: Even the insured have access problems.(The Week in Healthcare)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Rebecca Vesely Hospital emergency rooms and other safety net providers cannot keep up with the demands of the ever-expanding rolls of uninsured, which are expected to only grow during the down economy, according to an Institute of...

Northeast.(Regional News)(New York's Medicaid program)(executive compensation management)
March 2, 2009... ALBANY, N.Y.-A new comparative analysis of 19 states shows that New York's Medicaid program spends the most on long-term healthcare, but delivers only average or slightly above average quality. The study was conducted by the Nelson A....

West.(Regional News)(Molokai General Hospital, has undergone renovation)(healthcare access crisis in Wellington, Colorado)
March 2, 2009... MOLOKAI, Hawaii-The only hospital on the tiny Hawaiian island of Molokai, Molokai General Hospital, has undergone an extensive makeover. The $16.5 million renovation and expansion project, completed in January, will allow the island's 7,000...

Something for everyone? Industry has mixed reactions to budget proposals.(The Week in Healthcare)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Matthew DoBias, Jennifer Lubell and Jessica Zigmond Many are ogling (and sweating) the billions of dollars President Barack Obama put on the table for health reform, but industry executives are more fascinated with his apparent...

Raising the bar for boards; The days of adding people to healthcare boards 'sight unseen' are coming to an end as trustees' skills, makeup now being scrutinized.
March 2, 2009... Byline: Melanie Evans Demand for better-run and safer hospitals has heightened oversight of a group more used to watching over others than being watched: hospital trustees. The latest to step in is an American Hospital Association...

Other Voices.(Opinion)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... "On Tuesday night, (President Barack) Obama also pledged to make healthcare reform an immediate top priority. He said he suffered `no illusions' that the process would be easy but insisted that it `cannot wait, it must not wait and it will not...

Private Practice; Recovery act contains added disclosure accounting.(The Week in Healthcare)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Joseph Conn Patient-privacy advocates have plenty to cheer about in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law last month by President Barack Obama. Hospitals, physician offices, health plans,...

Hey, that's not an ad! It's just a YouTube video.(Outliers)
March 2, 2009... Fledgling artists and home-video aficionados apparently aren't the only ones who see the twinkle of opportunity in YouTube's cyberspace universe. A number of medical products companies are now posting content on the Google-owned, video-sharing...

Late News.(medicaid funding approved last year for Iowa hospitals)(economic credentialing policy)(memorandum of understanding between hospitals)(Wellmont Health System appoints Michael Snow as a chief executive officer)
March 2, 2009... Iowa hospitals, lawmakers butt heads over Medicaid bump Iowa Gov. Chet Culver and state legislators are feuding with the management of several dozen hospitals in the state in a dispute over whether a 1% bump in Medicaid funding approved...

Profit or loss? Do gloomy economics and the coming surge in Medicare enrollment signal tough times for investor-owned hospitals? Or are chains well-positioned to handle the challenges ahead?(Special Report)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Vince Galloro Over the past five decades, investor-owned hospitals have carved out a significant niche in an industry still dominated by not-for-profit providers. Sprawling for-profit companies compete vigorously in the...

Enrollment explosion; Survey: 18% increase in health management programs.(The Week in Healthcare)(Survey)
March 2, 2009... Byline: Joe Carlson Whatever the challenges facing healthcare providers today, tomorrow's leaders are betting on the industry's future with an increase in graduate-level education for healthcare management. A survey by the Commission...

South.(Regional News)(River West Medical Center laid off about 100 employees)(Brief article)
March 2, 2009... PLAQUEMINE, La.-Still struggling from the damage of Hurricane Gustav, River West Medical Center laid off about 100 employees, said Jim Cheek, president and chief executive officer of Springfield, Mo.-based Shiloh Health Services, the company...

Separating the unequal; New ACHE study shows racial, gender salary disparities still plague the C-suite, a problem the group is working to address.(American College of Healthcare Executives.)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Joe Carlson Despite increased scrutiny over the past 20 years, the salary disparities between white male healthcare executives and their colleagues in other ethnic and gender groups have only widened, according to a new study by...

Miller a nonissue, execs say; Former CEO's legal woes will have no impact.(The Week In Healthcare)(Chief executive officers)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Gregory Blesch Rodney Miller quit as president of the National Association of Health Services Executives a few days after the release of an audit report cataloging his alleged misappropriation of hospital funds for personal use...

Big MAC attack in Calif. Docs: Contractor program produced slow payments.(The Week In Healthcare)(Medicare Administrative Contractor)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Jennifer Lubell A perfect storm of administrative woes has been brewing over physicians' offices in sunny California. Headaches caused by a CMS physician reimbursement program known as the Medicare Administrative Contractor, or...

Other Voices.(Viewpoint essay)(Brief article)
March 9, 2009... "Between 1992 and 2006, Medicare spending grew twice as fast in Miami as it did in San Francisco. It increased by 146% in St. Louis and a whopping 206% in Kansas City.... Doctors at Dartmouth University... recently estimated that we could...

Payment plan; Obama budget proposal seeks decadelong SGR fix.(The Week In Healthcare)(Barack Obama)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Jennifer Lubell Physicians say they are optimistic that President Barack Obama's upfront approach in his budget proposal to address the costs associated with fixing the Medicare physician payment formula will result in a permanent...

Smells like team spirit; As Obama talks sacrifice for reform, providers, insurers return to '90s form.(Barack Obama )(Viewpoint essay)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Neil McLaughlin, managing editor Everything old is new again. As soon as President Barack Obama asked for some sacrifice in the cause of healthcare reform, all the lobbies went into 1990s mode, stared at the ground and mumbled,...

Protecting assets; Hospitals, systems move out of stocks.(The Week In Healthcare)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Melanie Evans Healthcare borrowers trying to hold onto cash and wary of continued volatility are parking more of their money in highly liquid investments. The stock markets' agonizing decline in 2008, particularly in the final...

Endowing future leaders; Meharry gets $9 million from RWJ Foundation.(Brief article)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Jean DerGurahian As healthcare executives ponder how to achieve more diversity in their board rooms, one medical college is moving to generate the diverse population needed in top leadership positions. Meharry Medical College,...

Late News.(briefs)
March 9, 2009... Healthcare job numbers growing as they plummet in other sectors Healthcare continued to add jobs in February while the rest of the U.S. job market remained in a free-fall. Hospitals and physician offices have added 47,100 workers in 2009....

Overseas projects hit; Crisis threatens plans U.S. providers have abroad.(The Week In Healthcare)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Shawn Rhea Tightening credit markets and slowing investment are beginning to threaten some global healthcare projects with ties to prominent U.S. partners, particularly in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. For several years...

Pharma industry's bitter pill ... ... could be impetus for devicemaker legislation, too.(The Week In Healthcare)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Gregg Blesch Legal observers expect a frenzy of action in pending and new litigation against pharmaceutical companies-and perhaps sweeping up providers-triggered by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week that federal regulation of...

Proposed cuts rile home health; President Obama calls for $37 billion over 10 years.(The Week In Healthcare)(Obama, Barack)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Jessica Zigmond President Barack Obama's proposed budget cuts to home health sent shudders through the segment last week as home health administrators worried about the threat of dramatic negative profit margins and fewer resources...

Popular choices; Providers call Sebelius, DeParle outstanding picks.(The Week in Healthcare)(Kathleen Sebelius)(Nancy-Ann DeParle)(White House Office on Health Reform)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Rebecca Vesely Providers reacted with applause to the selection of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius as HHS secretary and Nancy-Ann DeParle as director of the newly created White House Office on Health Reform last week. And outside...

Leading performers; Forthcoming KLAS report ranks IT consultants.(The Week In Healthcare)(Survey)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Joseph Conn What counts most in the world of health information technology consulting is performance, according to a new survey report by KLAS Enterprises, an Orem, Utah,-based market research firm. The massive, 500-page...

Power Plays; Healthcare providers look to green energy suppliers, alternative purchasing approaches to help control costs.(Special Report)(Obama, Barack)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Shawn Rhea President Barack Obama isn't the only one with an energy agenda. More than ever, healthcare providers say they, too, are looking for ways to curtail rising utility costs. In 2007, hospitals shelled out more than $5...

What $1.7 billion fraud? He wants to talk reform.(Outliers)(Columbia Healthcare Corp vs HCA Inc)
March 9, 2009... Healthcare reform has more momentum than at any time in the past 15 years, so it's not surprising that a new group has formed to play a role in the debate. The leader of that group, however, may be a surprise: Rick Scott, the founder of...

Still waiting for details; Summit draws praise, but debate is just beginning.(The Week in Healthcare)(Barack Obama)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Matthew DoBias A high-profile White House summit on health reform earned plaudits from a wide swath of industry groups, federal lawmakers and everyday citizens who attended, but also sparked a call for more details before full...

Systems survey now open.(The Week In Healthcare)(Survey)(Brief article)
March 9, 2009... It's time for Modern Healthcare's 33rd annual Hospital Systems Survey. This survey is intended for U.S. organizations that own, lease or sponsor two or more acute-care or psychiatric hospitals. To participate, please send a request to...

Operating efficiently; Tough economy could help bring more IT to the OR.(Information Edge)(information technology)(operating rooms)
March 9, 2009... Byline: Joseph Conn Hospital operating rooms could see an uptick in adoption of health information technology under the twin prods of a faltering economy and IT funding courtesy of the economic stimulus package. The American Recovery...

The pressure builds; Annual Construction & Design Survey shows 2008 kept architects and builders busy, but respondents confirm the trend toward fewer and smaller projects.(Special Feature)(Survey)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Andis Robeznieks While the effects of the recession are certainly being felt in the healthcare construction industry, architects, builders and engineers still had plenty on their plates in 2008 and will probably keep busy this year...

Thumbs down on this one; Let patients speak their minds in rating physician encounters.(Opinions)(Viewpoint essay)
March 16, 2009... Byline: David May During your next visit to the doctor's office, proceed with caution if you're handed a clipboard loaded with forms to complete. One of those documents could make you gag, which is exactly what the docs hope will happen....

How we did it.(Special Feature)
March 16, 2009... A total of 189 respondents participated in Modern Healthcare's 30th annual Construction & Design Survey, compared with 185 last year. This year's total includes 98 architecture firms, 34 construction management companies, 25 general...

Mixing drugs; Latest pharma deals unlikely to affect prices: experts.(The Week in Healthcare)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Vince Galloro The latest wave of pharmaceutical consolidation gathered strength last week, but group purchasing officials who oversee pharma contracts don't expect major changes in price to wash over them as a result. Merck &...

Their piece of the pie; $111 million earmarked for hospitals in law.(The Week in Healthcare)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Matthew DoBias Within the $410 billion appropriations bill signed by President Barack Obama last week are hundreds of the controversial federal grants known as earmarks that will be given to hospitals, medical centers and health...

Outliers: Beyond Dr. Phil: Oprah's talking patient safety now.(Outliers)(Oprah Winfrey; use of Twitter by the health care industry)
March 16, 2009... As Oprah Winfrey goes, so goes America. Which is why patient-safety advocates were thrilled to see the influential media celebrity feature medical errors on a recent "Oprah'' show. On her March 10 show, Oprah hosted Dennis Quaid, the actor...

Broken ground; Economy puts construction on shaky footing.(The Week in Healthcare)(delay in construction projects of the health care industry; St. Francis Hospital and Health Centers (Beech Grove, Indiana))
March 16, 2009... Byline: Andis Robeznieks Further evidence that healthcare is not totally recession-proof came last week with the announcement that economic factors prompted providers such as Atlanta-based Emory Healthcare to put big-ticket construction...

Round one: SEIU; Uncertainty if nurse settlement will lead to others.(The Week in Healthcare)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Gregg Blesch The Service Employees International Union is hailing a settlement in one of five class-action lawsuits alleging hospital conspiracies to depress nurse wages, a deal announced during a week when Congress took up...

ALTERNATE AVENUES TO ACCESS; To ease the path to doc visits, practices are experimenting with care via the Internet and group exams.(Payers and Purchasers)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Rebecca Vesely Efforts to improve access to healthcare certainly aren't new, but there's been a lot of renewed talk in recent months about how to get more people-both the uninsured and the insured-connected to the care they need,...

Use with caution; Imaging contributes to radiation exposure: study.(The Week in Healthcare)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Shawn Rhea A National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements report released earlier this month is part of a growing body of literature showing the U.S. population's radiation exposure has increased significantly in recent...

Wait over: It's DeVore.(Late News)(Susan DeVore; Premier Inc. (Charlotte, North Carolina))
March 16, 2009... The March 13 announcement that Charlotte, N.C.-based group purchasing organization Premier selected Susan DeVore, 50, to succeed retiring President and Chief Executive Officer Richard Norling was well-received by the GPO's membership and board....

Crossing the line? As Obama clears path for embryonic stem-cell research, Catholic healthcare finds itself at crossroads of religion and medicine.(Barack Obama)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Melanie Evans The White House opened the nation's $29 billion medical research budget to embryonic stem-cell research last week and dealt a blow to Roman Catholic hospitals, which have rejected such science because it is banned by...

Could be in a bind; Legislation would force arbitration after 120 days.(The Week in Healthcare)(Employee Free Choice Act of 2009)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Joe Carlson Dueling squadrons of pro-business lobbyists and pro-union workers descended on Washington last week to influence the fate of a widely anticipated bill that would make it far easier to form new organized bargaining...

Late News.(regulations for health care industry)
March 16, 2009... HHS establishes Recovery Act office for stimulus spending A new HHS office promises quick, organized and transparent distribution of an estimated $137 billion in federal healthcare stimulus spending on tap to flow from the American Recovery...

Culturally aware; NQF guidelines seek to improve minority care.(The Week in Healthcare)(National Quality Forum)
March 16, 2009... Byline: Jean DerGurahian The cultural guidelines endorsed recently by the National Quality Forum represent the latest effort to mesh cultural competency into patient-safety and quality-of-care initiatives, hospital executives said. ...

Other Voices.(Opinions)(gag order on patients)
March 16, 2009... "Placing what amounts to a gag order on patients is not a constructive way to deal with criticism, which might, in fact, be justified. People want information about their healthcare providers, and the Internet has been a handy way of accessing...

Systems survey open.
March 23, 2009... Modern Healthcare's 33rd annual Hospital Systems Survey is open for participation. This survey is intended for U.S. organizations that own, lease or sponsor two or more acute-care or psychiatric hospitals. To participate, please send a request...

From the gridiron to the C-suite; Dan Wilford brought intensity, focus to his leadership of Memorial Hermann.(Memorial Hermann Healthcare System)(Biography)
March 23, 2009... Byline: Jessica Zigmond It's fitting that former Memorial Hermann Healthcare System President and Chief Executive Officer Dan Wilford, a retired National Football League official, would name Tom Landry, Bill Walsh and Mike Ditka as his...

The `anomaly'? Economy might skew baseline medical staff survey.(Survey)
March 23, 2009... Byline: Andis Robeznieks A new, extensive survey on medical-staff structure, composition and activities scheduled for release this week will serve as a baseline for future surveys every two years, its developers say. But with economic...

They bucked the trend; Cahill, Mayo brothers, Wilford built lasting organizations and legacies.(Patricia Cahill, William and Charles Mayo, Dan Wilford; Catholic Health Initiatives; Memorial Hermann)
March 23, 2009... Byline: Neil McLaughlin We have been living in a second Gilded Age in America, in which the accumulation of personal wealth has taken precedence above all other values. One problem with that behaviorother than the resulting economic...

On a mission; Patricia Cahill took unlikely path to be first CEO at Catholic Health Initiatives.(Biography)
March 23, 2009... Byline: Joe Carlson When a fresh-eyed Patricia Cahill entered the workforce in 1960 as a middle-school teacher outside Boston, there was scarcely any hint in her lessons on French-speaking skills that she could go on to one day head up the...

Why the young are getting restless; Time for old-schoolers to join next-gen docs in shunning Big Pharma influence.
March 23, 2009... There has been more news recently about Big Pharma, Big Money and conflicts of interest in the medical profession. It all amounts to a big story of greed and influence that won't go away. In one of the latest installments of this saga,...

LATE NEWS.(appointments, job cuts and government finance in the health care sector)(Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research; New York City Health and Hospitals Corp.)
March 23, 2009... HHS names Clancy, Valuck to comparative-effectiveness panel HHS named the members of its new Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research, established to oversee and manage $1.1 billion in research funds allocated...

Importing care; Some support visas for nurses; Obama doesn't.(Barack Obama)
March 23, 2009... Byline: Joe Carlson As the nurse shortage balloons, leaders in Washington are pushing competing philosophies on whether the problem is best addressed by training larger numbers of American nurses or granting more visas to foreign-born...

ASIDES & INSIDES.(new building of Sanford Children's Hospital (Sioux Falls, South Dakota); impact of wireless phones on health surveys by the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention; California bill to blur or erase images in Google Earth and Google Maps)
March 23, 2009... Putting a fairy tale spin on children's healthcare Sanford Children's Hospital has moved out of the main building of Sanford USD Medical Center and into a fairy tale. Calling itself a "Castle of Care,'' the hospital building in Sioux...

CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS.(Correction notice)
March 23, 2009... A story on Modern Healthcare's annual Construction & Design Survey (March 16, p. 24) gave an incorrect figure for the amount of ongoing construction being tracked by Premier. The correct figure is $8.5 billion.

Deals on ice; Acute-care M&A market still reeling.(merger and acquisition)
March 23, 2009... Byline: Vince Galloro Spring is here, but the hospital mergers-and-acquisitions market remains in the deep freeze, transactions advisers say, although the market could heat up by summer. Predictions that investor-owned hospital...

Blumenthal gets nod; Experts say Boston physician right choice for IT office.(David Blumenthal)
March 23, 2009... Byline: Joseph Conn David Blumenthal, President Barack Obama's choice to become the third national coordinator for health information technology at HHS, was lauded by industry insiders as a good choice. Blumenthal, an internist who is...

Participate in our MBA survey.
March 23, 2009... Modern Healthcare is conducting its seventh annual survey of business graduate schools that offer programs targeting physician-executives. Institutions interested in participating must offer long-distance learning programs that award MBAs or...

GE Capital takes a hit; Borrowing from alternative sources expected to rise, but it could get costlier.
March 23, 2009... Byline: Shawn Rhea With banks tightening their criteria for loans and the healthcare bond markets still largely in hibernation, some providers in recent months have been forced to seek capital from more costly, alternative lenders such as...

Poulsen, Parrett on deck; Sentencing for top NCFE execs set for March 27.(Lance Poulsen, Rebecca Parrett, National Century Financial Enterprises)
March 23, 2009... Byline: Gregg Blesch Two executives at the center of a $1.9 billion fraud on the investors in National Century Financial Enterprises face sentencing March 27 in Columbus, Ohio. Prosecutors are seeking lengthy prison sentences for Lance...

In exchange for coverage; As Cover the Uninsured Week kicks off, policymakers are dusting off an old idea: a national health insurance exchange.
March 23, 2009... Byline: Rebecca Vesely It has become a familiar American story. An uninsured, unemployed father of two children sustains an injury, say a hernia, and can't afford the procedure to correct the problem, which typically runs between $10,000...

Safety in numbers; Roster of PSOs rapidly expanding: AHRQ.(patient-safety organizations; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality)
March 23, 2009... Byline: Jean DerGurahian The number of designated patient-safety organizations, or PSOs, continues to grow faster than originally anticipated by the federal agency overseeing the program. Last week, the group purchasing and quality...

LAUNCHING SATELLITES; With rise in free-standing emergency facilities, states debate tighter regulations.
March 23, 2009... Byline: Jean DerGurahian Covenant Health System is building a free-standing emergency department near one of its hospitals in Lubbock, Texas, as that state continues to debate legislation that would require more regulation of such...

Can't we all just get along? SEIU, CNA/NNOC say yes after signing agreement.(Service Employees International Union; California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee)
March 23, 2009... Byline: Joe Carlson Healthcare providers can expect more union organizing drives, tougher contract negotiations and greater pressure for union-friendly legislation at the state and federal level now that two influential healthcare labor...

Past Inductees.(List)
March 23, 2009... Bob Ball Inducted in 1999 Clara Barton Inducted in 1993 Karl Bays Inducted in 2001 Nancy Brinker Inducted in 2007 Ray E. Brown Inducted in 1988 Robin C. Buerki Inducted in 1989 George...

Pension pain; Fund requirements drain reserves.
March 23, 2009... Byline: Melanie Evans The economy's rapid descent has slashed the pension funds of health systems that closed their books in December, dragging down already battered balance sheets and creating a potentially risky drain on cash. ...

Conscientious objectors; Obama plan to rescind rule draws Catholic criticism.(Barack Obama)
March 23, 2009... Byline: Jennifer Lubell A controversial rule that allows healthcare providers to not be required to provide healthcare services that conflict with their religious beliefssuch as abortionis about to be overturned. The move is bound to...

UPON CLOSER INSPECTION; As the U.S. imports more drugs and devices, the FDA's overseas initiatives aim to head off trouble at the source.
March 30, 2009... Byline: Shawn Rhea In late February, the Food and Drug Administration sent a letter to Gurgaon, India-based pharmaceutical giant Ranbaxy Laboratories, one of the largest exporters of generic drugs, halting review of any applications the...

Healthy choices; Industry wonders how $1.1 billion for comparative-effectiveness research will be applied.
March 30, 2009... Byline: Jessica Zigmond The money has been allocated, the principal players have been named, and the lobbying groups are in position. But the question lingers: Will a $1.1 billion, federally led, comparative-effectiveness research effort...

Late News.(sentencing of National Century Financial Enterprises' officers; appointment of Howard Koh as assistanct secretary of health; federal legislation regarding health insurance)
March 30, 2009... Poulsen, Parrett draw hefty sentences in NCFE case Lance Poulsen, the former chairman and CEO of collapsed healthcare finance company National Century Financial Enterprises, was sentenced to 30 years in a federal prison for directing an...