6 Key Issues Facing Healthcare in the Second Half of 2012

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Written by Scott Becker, JD, CPA, and Lindsey Dunn | July 11, 2012, Becker’s Hospital Review The first half of 2012 has been an incredibly busy and momentous one for healthcare. Most notably, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was upheld by the Supreme Court. Other events this year impacting the industry may not have… Read more »

Troubled New York Hospitals Forgo Coverage for Malpractice

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By ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS, New York Times Every hospital makes mistakes. But some New York City hospitals may not have enough money to pay for them. Several of the city’s most troubled hospitals are partially or completely uninsured for malpractice, state records show, forgoing what is considered a standard safeguard across the country. Some have saved… Read more »

Reform may hit hospitals harder

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J.K. Wall, Indianapolis Business Journal The immediate reaction on Wall Street to last month’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding President Obama’s health care law was to buy hospital stocks and dump health insurance stocks. But at least one analyst expects the long-term outcome to be exactly opposite of that. Sheryl Skolnick, co-head of research at… Read more »

Academic Medical Centers: What’s Their Role in the Consolidating Healthcare Market?

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Written by Maria Finarelli, principal, Health Strategies & Solutions | July 02, 2012 Health care organizations of all types and sizes are evaluating their ability to remain independent given the significant changes underway and on the horizon. According to Irving Levin Associates, 90 hospital merger or acquisition deals targeting 156 hospitals occurred in 2011, the highest… Read more »

5 Questions for Building Physician Engagement

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Written by Ralph Jacobson, Founder and Principal, The Leader’s Toolbox | July 09, 2012 The challenge For most healthcare leaders, reform has focused on the implications of changes in payment models. Yet the objectives outlined in the Triple Aim require a significant redefinition in the way frontline personnel must work together to deliver service. No formulas,… Read more »

Healthcare Creates 169K Jobs Halfway Through 2012

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John Commins, for HealthLeaders Media, July 9, 2012   The healthcare industry created 13,000 jobs in June, a significant drop from the sector’s 33,300 new jobs in May. The overall unemployment rate, however, remained unchanged at 8.2%. Nevertheless, Bureau of Labor Statistics data released Friday shows that healthcare created 169,800 jobs in the first half… Read more »

89 ACOs Open for Business

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John Commins, for HealthLeaders Media, July 10, 2012   Federal officials announced Monday that 89 Accountable Care Organizations opened on July 1 in 40 states and Washington, DC and will serve 1.2 million Medicare beneficiaries. Jonathan Blum, principal deputy administrator and director of the Center for Medicare, said in a teleconference that another 400 provider… Read more »

How Bundled Payments Pay Off in Joint-replacement

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This article appears in the June 2012 issue of HealthLeaders magazine. Before they met with vendors of joint surgery devices several years ago, top officials of the 1,674-licensed-bed Baptist Health System in San Antonio, Texas, didn’t realize that millions of dollars were at stake that day. The meeting included hospital officials, a team of orthopedic… Read more »

The Gap Between Skilled Healthcare Workers and Support Jobs

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John Commins, for HealthLeaders Media, July 2, 2012   A stubborn line of demarcation exists between the haves and have-nots in the U.S. healthcare workforce. For skilled technicians and healthcare practitioners, there are more than two job openings for every qualified candidate. The Conference Board Help Wanted OnLine data series for June reports 615,800 online… Read more »

Hospital Leaders Ponder Impact of Political Uncertainty

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Cheryl Clark, for HealthLeaders Media, July 2, 2012   What will be the impact on hospitals now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of most of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? Will the Republicans’ July 11 threat to repeal the law—unlikely as it may seem—hold back providers’ plans to implement… Read more »