Modern Healthcare articles from November 2008

Modern Healthcare archives from November 2008

Corrections & clarifications.(Correction notice)
November 3, 2008... A chart in the Oct. 27 issue, "By the Numbers," (p. 9), incorrectly identified the labels. They should have been listed as "average family employer-sponsored insurance premiums" and "median individual income." A story about two North...

The Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare Opinion Leaders Survey; Opinion leaders believe that small-scale demonstration projects, tweaks are not enough to fix the current fee-for-service payment system.(Healthcare Opinion Leaders survey)(Survey)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... Byline: James Tehrani, Copy editor The Commonwealth Fund/Modern Healthcare Opinion Leaders Survey, conducted by Harris Interactive, is an online poll designed to highlight perspectives on the most timely health-policy issues from a panel of...

PAYMENT PROGNOSIS.(Healthcare Opinion Leaders survey)(Survey)
November 3, 2008... * 91% of opinion leaders say the current payment system where payment is given to each provider for services offered to each patient is not effective/somewhat effective. * 85% say fundamental provider payment reform with broader incentives...

Showing the green; AHA leads AMA, FAH, AHIP in donations.(The Week in Healthcare)(American Hospital Association)(American Medical Association)(Federation of American Hospitals)(America's Health Insurance Plans)
November 3, 2008... Byline: Matthew DoBias and Jennifer Lubell The American Hospital Association is on pace to spend a record amount on congressional races this election cycle, saying it is shelling out $1.6 million in individual contributions to House races...

The end of the 'transition'; Frist Jr. will resign from HCA board Dec. 31.(The Week in Healthcare)(Hospital Corporation of America)
November 3, 2008... Byline: Vince Galloro When Thomas Frist Jr. announced in 2001 that he was resigning as chairman of HCA, he said he was able to step back from the company because it had recovered from the depths of the government fraud investigation that...

Late news.
November 3, 2008... Longtime AHA president J. Alexander McMahon, 87, dies J. Alexander McMahon, who led the American Hospital Association through a tumultuous period in which federal payment systems came under attack in the 1970s, died Oct. 30 at his home in...

Measuring inclusiveness; Study looks at hospitals' cultural competency.(The Week in Healthcare)
November 3, 2008... Byline: Joe Carlson For evidence of how understanding diversity and cultural competency can improve patient outcomes, Juana Slade points to the obstetrics unit at AnMed Health Medical Center. Slade, director of diversity and language...

Economy hits payers' portfolios; Not-for-profit Blues plans have more at stake.(The Week in Healthcare)
November 3, 2008... Byline: Rebecca Vesely Publicly traded health insurers' profits are getting hit hard, in part because of exposure to the ongoing credit crisis, enough so that attention is turning to not-for-profit insurers. With news last week of big...

Outliers; Asides & insides.
November 3, 2008... Who owns 'Drill baby drill'? Only satirists know for sure Outliers often observes that nowadays it's harder and harder to tell satire from the actual news. I mean, Joe the Plumber? Alan Greenspan's "shocked disbelief'' that there was a...

Winner's Playbook.(The Week in Healthcare)(Brief article)
November 3, 2008... Winner's Playbook is a series of podcasts that feature exclusive interviews with recipients of Modern Healthcare's many awards and honors programs. With each edition of Winner's Playbook, listeners hear directly from leading healthcare...

The rules of our road; Our updated Code of Ethics policies.(Editorial)
November 3, 2008... Byline: David Burda We strive to make Modern Healthcare and all its publications the most credible sources of healthcare business news and information available. The cornerstone of that effort is our Editorial Code of Ethics, which is...

No intense thirst; For-profit chains survive credit drought, so far.(Strictly Finance)
November 3, 2008... Byline: Vince Galloro When the credit markets were gushing the past few years, for-profit hospital chains filled their canteens. Whether they were prescient or merely lucky, they appear to have gathered enough liquidity to stay quenched...

Flight plan; NTSB adds EMS flights to 'most wanted' safety list.(The Week in Healthcare)(National Transportation Safety Board)(Emergency medical services)
November 3, 2008... Byline: Jessica Zigmond The safety of emergency medical services operations became a greater national priority last week when the National Transportation Safety Board added EMS flight operations to its federal "most wanted'' list of safety...

APIC joins consulting game; For-profit arm to focus on drug-resistant organisms.(The Week in Healthcare)(Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology)
November 3, 2008... Byline: Jean DerGurahian As the focus on infection control continues to sharpen at local and federal levels, implementation assistance that the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology can provide to healthcare...

Avoiding an audit ... ... not so easy under RAC program, hospitals find.(The Week in Healthcare)(Recovery Audit Contractor)
November 3, 2008... Byline: Jennifer Lubell Hospitals and health systems interested in ways to avoid a visit from a contractor in the Medicare recovery audit program are finding it to be more difficult than it might sound. The recently launched Recovery...

On the move...(News Makers)
November 3, 2008... CONSULTANTS Healthcare Management Partners hired two former hospital executives. Bruce Buchanan, 58, left his position as CEO of Phoenix Baptist Hospital to join the Philadelphia-based consulting firm as a managing director. Randolph...

Fighting over a deadline; Decisions on IT rules likely to be postponed.(The Week in Healthcare)(information technology)
November 3, 2008... Byline: Joseph Conn The presidential election this week likely will have a profound impact on American life, but the coming change in occupancy at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. also could affect two of the most arcane yet important elements in...

They see bad debt rising; With 72 million people struggling to pay health bills, providers may be in for nasty weather as those figures are predicted to rise.
November 3, 2008... Byline: Melanie Evans As millions of Americans will testify, health insurance doesn't guarantee affordable medical care. Just how many millions more will learn that lesson before the economy rebounds presents a looming problem for the...

Risky board business; Virgin Islands case may offer lessons for what happens under trustees' watch.(The Week in Healthcare)
November 3, 2008... Byline: Gregg Blesch A board chair for a public hospital was arrested and charged last month for an alleged role in what prosecutors describe as a "criminal enterprise'' among the top three executives. It's an extraordinary case in the...

Just in time; AAMC releases six principles for healthcare reform.(The Week in Healthcare)(Association of American Medical Colleges)
November 3, 2008... Byline: Andis Robeznieks As campaign rhetoric morphs into actual policymaking, the Association of American Medical Colleges is hoping the six principles for healthcare reform released two weeks before the election are considered and...

Corrections & clarifications.(Correction notice)
November 10, 2008... West Shore Medical Center in Manistee, Mich., has been ISO-certified for seven years but only recently through DNV ("DNV setting new standard," Oct. 27, p. 6). The hospital previously was certified through two other organizations. Currently,...

Cover story quotes.
November 10, 2008... "At this point in time, I think the priority is probably going to be more what we can do to fix the economy and get that squared away, and then look at other items, including healthcare reform." -Charles Beaman Jr., president and CEO at...

It's all about service; Hospitals need to embrace it, teach it, practice it.(Report)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Charles S. Lauer It was several years ago but I'll always remember a discussion I had with a seasoned, high-profile healthcare executive. In my opinion, he was one of those who personified the definition of a leader-one whose...

The buyers' market; our inaugural Purchasing Power Survey examines large employers as they use their leverage to find better value in healthcare spending.(Special Feature)(Survey)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Rebecca Vesely Major employers are struggling to hold down healthcare expenditures amid rising medical costs, and are just starting to flex their purchasing power to make fundamental changes to keep providing workers with benefits...

AHRQ presses on; No rule yet, but agency taps 10 safety organizations.(The Week in Healthcare)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Jean DerGurahian The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, prompted by interest from the health industry, pushed ahead with the creation of patient-safety organizations despite the lack of a final rule from HHS governing how...

HOW WE DID IT.(Special Feature)
November 10, 2008... This is the first year Modern Healthcare has conducted a survey of major employers seeking information on their healthcare expenditures. We wanted to know how employers across industries are managing rising healthcare costs and flexing their...

Healthcare wins at polls; Calif., Montana, Texas voters OK more spending.(The Week in Healthcare)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Gregg Blesch As the nation elected Barack Obama president, voters in various states used their ballots to spread some wealth for hospital construction and children's health insurance in spite of the bleak economic outlook. They...

Kennedy gets to work; Senator eyes one comprehensive healthcare bill.(The Week in Healthcare)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Matthew DoBias Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), an iconic figure of past reform battles on Capitol Hill, is looking to push healthcare high on Congress' agenda by assembling a group of stakeholders to quickly produce major healthcare...

CEO IT nominations sought.(The Week in Healthcare)
November 10, 2008... Modern Healthcare is seeking nominations for its seventh annual CEO IT Achievement Award competition. The 2009 award, co-sponsored by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, honors one or more healthcare industry chief...

Off the RAC; suspension of program gives hospitals a reprieve.(Medicare's Recovery Audit Contractor)(The Week in Healthcare)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Jennifer Lubell Hospital executives anxious about complying with Medicare's Recovery Audit Contractor program may have breathed a temporary sigh of relief last week in hearing that the audit contracts had been suspended because of...

Late news.
November 10, 2008... Community hospitals see record profits in 2007... U.S. community hospitals enjoyed record profits in 2007, posting $43 billion more in revenue than expenses and creating the largest single-year jump in profit margins in at least 15 years,...

Tenet at your service; new subsidiary to focus on revenue-management, clinical communications.(Conifer Health Solutions)(The Week in Healthcare)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Vince Galloro Like HCA before it, Tenet Healthcare Corp. has formed a subsidiary to sell services to other hospitals. In light of the effects of the credit crunch and the economic slowdown that they reported last week, perhaps it's...

Other voices.(Opinions Editorials)
November 10, 2008... "The cost of covering the elderly and the poor is busting federal and state budgets. (President-elect) Obama has an expensive but promising plan to expand health coverage by strengthening the employer-based system. Even so, he would be wise to...

West Penn operating losses hit $94 million; of that amount, $73 million attributed to accounting mistakes from '06-'08.(The Week in Healthcare)(Financial report)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Melanie Evans West Penn Allegheny Health System ended a rocky fiscal year in June with operating losses hugely magnified by accounting errors and an "ambitious, but realistic'' $66 million turnaround plan. The Pittsburgh-based...

Snoops put on notice; two new Calif. laws add teeth to privacy protection.(Information Edge)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Joseph Conn Come next year, two new California healthcare privacy laws will take effect, establishing an office of the state health department as privacy enforcement traffic controller while closing a loophole in existing law that...

Can Obama make history again? The new president-elect has the opportunity to truly reform U.S. healthcare.(Opinions Editorials)(Editorial)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Neil McLaughlin That Barack Obama is one optimistic guy. Despite all the conventional wisdom indicating that he wouldn't stand a chance, the junior senator from Illinois entered the presidential race nearly two years ago and...

Outliers; Asides & insides.
November 10, 2008... Playing Whac-a-Mole with Florida's Medicare fraudsters South Florida is home to the nation's highest concentration of crooks who rip off the government with fraudulent claims for durable medical equipment and supplies, and the government...

MAYBE HE CAN; Experts say potential is there to make real healthcare change, but it won't be easy to achieve.(Report)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Jennifer Lubell Expectations are high in the healthcare industry that President-elect Barack Obama will do what few Democratic presidents have done before: deliver on comprehensive healthcare reform to fix a broken system. To...

Post-storm surplus in La.(The Week in Healthcare)(Brief article)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Jessica Zigmond Despite the damage Hurricanes Gustav and Ike caused two months ago, the storms resulted in an unexpected gain for Louisiana, as they accounted for nearly half of a current $100 million surplus in the state's...

'Unworkable situation'; Home care cries foul over CMS oxygen therapy reg.(The Week in Healthcare)(Report)
November 10, 2008... Byline: Jessica Zigmond Advocates for the home-care industry say they were stunned by Medicare's new regulation for providing home oxygen therapy to seniors that they contend will "adversely impact'' patients. The group's primary...

Positive overhaul; Look to make change when the going's good.(From the C-Suite)(Report)
November 17, 2008... Byline: Steven Altschuler The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia has delivered stellar clinical and financial performance for many years and has been widely recognized as one of the premier pediatric healthcare institutions in the...

At the heart of quality.(By the Numbers)(Report)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... The quality of care in cardiovascular programs at hospitals across the country can be considered a work in progress. Executives and caregivers continuously work to learn from mistakes, improve outcomes and launch new initiatives to keep raising...

Labor intensive.(Special Report)(Discussion)
November 17, 2008... This special report on healthcare labor issues is based on a roundtable discussion held Oct. 6 with four prominent leaders in healthcare academia, administration, law and organized labor. The meeting was held at Modern Healthcare's offices in...

The call is out for the Hall.(The Week in Healthcare)
November 17, 2008... Modern Healthcare is inviting readers to submit nominations for the 2009 Health Care Hall of Fame induction. The program recognizes luminaries who have made outstanding contributions to healthcare nationally and internationally. A panel of...

Outliers; Asides & insides.
November 17, 2008... Just take two appetizers and call me in the morning Riga, the ancient Baltic seaport and Latvian capital, has become "one of the trendiest cities in Europe,'' according to MSNBC. So naturally they need some theme restaurants to keep the...

Other voices.(Opinions Editorials)
November 17, 2008... "The rate of new diabetes cases nearly doubled over the past decade, from five per 1,000 adults in the mid-1990s to nine in the mid-2000s.... Ninety-percent of the new cases are Type 2 diabetes, what used to be known as adult-onset diabetes....

It's all downhill from here; What started as a year of optimism has turned into what some describe as a supertough economic situation despite contrary reports.(Report)
November 17, 2008... Byline: Joe Carlson The second half of 2008 is beginning to look like a turning point in the financial lives of hospitals and health systems. New data and anecdotal evidence are beginning to darken the optimism that surrounded hospital...

Retooling wellness; Health plans rolling out newly designed programs to help employers cut costs.(Payers and Purchasers)(Report)
November 17, 2008... Byline: Rebecca Vesely Major health insurers are ramping up an array of wellness programs to meet growing demand from large employers and to help members lower their medical costs, with some of the biggest health plans rolling out new...

LETTERS.(Opinions Letters)
November 17, 2008... `Best of the worst'... The only thing missing in either presidential campaign is "experience.'' We were forced to vote for the "best of the worst'' and, in such a situation, no one wins. As stated by many during the presidential race,...

Putting the squeeze on; Healthcare outlook worsens with economy.(Report)
November 17, 2008... Byline: Melanie Evans The worsening economy has put financial performance at risk for hospitals and nearly every other healthcare sector, one major ratings agency said last week. Hospitals, insurers and medical-device makers face...

Late news.
November 17, 2008... Safety net hospitals write Pelosi for stimulus package Seventeen chief executive officers from some of the largest safety net hospitals in the country appealed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to increase funding for the nation's...

Lobbying for reform; Baucus raises ante with ambitious 90-page plan.(Sen. Max Baucus)(The Week in Healthcare)(Report)
November 17, 2008... Byline: Jennifer Lubell Despite early praise from providers, it's likely that Sen. Max Baucus' (D-Mont.) comprehensive plan to cover all Americans through public and private reforms is bound to face some resistance from certain sectors of...

Under the knife; Democrats eye cuts to Medicare Advantage.(The Week in Healthcare)(Report)
November 17, 2008... Byline: Matthew DoBias Plans under way on Capitol Hill to redirect payments away from Medicare Advantage to pay for broad healthcare reform could signal the beginning of the end for a program that has frustrated many lawmakers since its...

Bulletin of the National Center for Healthcare Leadership; Educational and advertorial supplement to Modern Healthcare.(Advertorial Supplement)
November 17, 2008... Letter from NCHL - 3 Survey stresses value of leadership development for healthcare organizations - 5 Reinventing healthcare leadership - 7 Leadership and successful financial performance in healthcare -9 Commentaries on...

UTMB plans to lay off 3,800.(The Week in Healthcare)(Brief article)
November 17, 2008... Byline: Jessica Zigmond The University of Texas System's announcement last week that it will cut 3,800 jobs at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston marked the second time this year the system will have laid off workers at...

Coping with the downturn; Groups mull investment strategy as values drop.(The Week in Healthcare)(Report)
November 17, 2008... Byline: Joe Carlson If some financial soothsayer could have told Eric Cauble a few months back that his organization's investments would lose 10% of their value before Election Day, the chief operating officer at the Medical Group...

Executive interviews.(Interview)(Brief article)
November 24, 2008... In an exclusive podcast interview, Modern Healthcare Editor David Burda talks with Peter Bastone, president and chief executive officer of Mission Hospital in Mission Viejo, Calif., about how the economic crisis is changing his hospital's...

Navigating around ASCs' legal hurdles; When it comes to regulatory issues involving ambulatory surgery centers, the state of affairs often depends on the state where the facilities are located.(Special Report)(Report)
November 24, 2008... Byline: Gregg Blesch A legal opinion plunged New Jersey's ambulatory surgery centers into limbo last year and legislators committed themselves to fix a consequential but narrow issue. All of the interested parties came to the...

Other voices.(Opinions Editorials)
November 24, 2008... "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently took stock of the healthiness of people living in the country's metro areas. And, for a change, Memphis wasn't ranked as the nation's unhealthiest city. That dubious distinction...

Future considerations; Joint Commission report: Safety barriers persist.(The Week in Healthcare)(Report)
November 24, 2008... Byline: Jean DerGurahian As results of its annual report indicate that hospitals still are not performing adequately in certain performance measurements, the Joint Commission has stepped in with targeted action recommendations for...

Annual construction, design survey opens.(The Week in Healthcare)
November 24, 2008... Modern Healthcare's 30th annual Construction & Design Survey is now open for participation. This survey is intended for U.S. construction companies that service the healthcare market and that had a minimum of 100,000 square feet of healthcare...

No data-mining zone; Appeals court ruling favors N.H. law.(New Hampshire)(The Week in Healthcare)
November 24, 2008... Byline: Joseph Conn Local physicians were strongly in favor of a federal appeals court decision supporting a New Hampshire law that aims to block the use of data on physician and other clinician prescribing patterns for drug marketing. ...

Late news.(News)
November 24, 2008... McKesson agrees to pay $350 million settlement Pharmaceutical distributor McKesson Corp. announced it would pay $350 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging the company conspired with First DataBank to inflate drug prices paid by...

Employees are customers; Plenty of healthcare organizations are getting it right.(Opinions)(Report)
November 24, 2008... Byline: Charles S. Lauer There's lots of talk these days by consultants and human resources managers about treating employees just like customers should be treated. In other words, it's all about giving employees the same sort of personal...

Adding critical mass; N.H. hospital includes extra space, expanded services in multiphase project.(Huggins Hospital in Wolfeboro)(Construction Digest)(Report)
November 24, 2008... Byline: Jessica Zigmond When it opens in the spring of 2010, Huggins Hospital in Wolfeboro, N.H., will have completed its largest building project in more than a century with a facility that is considerably larger than most critical-access...

Home builders; Incentives, time needed to make the shift to medical homes.(Opinions Commentary)(Report)
November 24, 2008... Byline: Francois de Brantes and Jon Shematek Medical homes have been touted by many as a means to both reinvigorate primary-care practices and significantly increase the quality of care while also controlling the unsustainable increases in...

Put on hold; Stymied by a turbulent economy, hospitals are pushing back opening dates for new facilities, halting construction.(Report)
November 24, 2008... Byline: Rebecca Vesely Hospital systems across the country are pulling back on construction projects, keeping blue-prints on the drawing board, halting bulldozers and leaving completed facilities unopened. Building projects are the...

Briefs.(Construction Digest)
November 24, 2008... Ground broken for new VA medical center in Orlando A groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new $656 million Orlando (Fla.) VA Medical Center at Lake Nona on Oct. 24. Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2012. Plans call for the...

Serious on reform? Value-based purchasing bill could be first step.(The Week in Healthcare)
November 24, 2008... Byline: Jennifer Lubell A draft bill issued last week to establish a value-based purchasing program is an early sign that Congress may be serious about healthcare reform under a new administration, yet the "rewards and penalties'' system...

Happiness is a warm hug; Research suggests keeping employees happy is a great wellness program.(Opinions Editorials)(Editorial)
November 24, 2008... Byline: Neil McLaughlin Have you hugged your employees lately? It might save you some money. That question comes to mind because of recent coverage of wellness programs and workplace health. In this magazine, we have published two...

Holding pattern; Tough bond market for not-for-profits continues.
November 24, 2008... Byline: Melanie Evans The worst of the credit crisis-to date-had not yet unfolded when Mountain States Health Alliance agreed to invest $132 million in an Abingdon, Va., hospital for an ownership stake. But as Mountain States readied...

Outliers; Asides & insides.
November 24, 2008... These kidnappers make cyberspace next frontier In this age of electronic wonder, it was only a matter of time before kidnappers figured out a way to execute their crimes in cyberspace. Now it seems that the giant pharmacy benefit manager...

Cutting back; Mich. system next to downsize in wake of economy.(The Week in Healthcare)(Report)
November 24, 2008... Byline: Joe Carlson At Beaumont Hospitals, fortunes faltered rapidly this year. In the space of four months, executives at the three-hospital system in southeastern Michigan went from hitting their budget targets at the end of June to...

Deadline approaching for trustee nominations.(The Week in Healthcare)
November 24, 2008... Nominations are now being accepted for Modern Healthcare's 2009 Trustee of the Year competition. The awards, co-sponsored by executive search firm Witt/Kieffer, honor two outstanding trustees for their contributions to healthcare governance,...

Small states, big progress; Rhode Island, North Dakota lead way in promoting medical homes.(Physician Affairs)(Report)
November 24, 2008... Byline: Andis Robeznieks As the smallest in size and fourth-least densely populated states, respectively, Rhode Island and North Dakota don't often find themselves leading the rest of the union. But both are in front of the pack when it...

Looking for signs; Daschle's stand on doc ownership under scrutiny.(Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle)(The Week in Healthcare)
November 24, 2008... Byline: Matthew DoBias Representatives for physician-owned hospitals say they are looking for signals from former Democratic Sen. Tom Daschle on how he might weigh in on ownership regulations as part of broader healthcare reform. While...

Guaranteed coverage ... ... if insurance made mandatory: Blues, AHIP.(America's Health Insurance Plans)(The Week in Healthcare)
November 24, 2008... Byline: Vince Galloro If the incoming Obama administration spent last week fueling up the healthcare reform train, then health plan lobby groups were trying to punch their tickets to ensure a seat onboard. America's Health Insurance...