Tag Archives: Health System
Elliot, Dartmouth-Hitchcock merger could face antitrust challenge
The recently announced decision by Dartmouth-Hitchcock in Lebanon and Elliot Health Systems in Manchester to pursue an alliance is just the latest move in a wave of consolidation that’s altering the health-care landscape in the Granite State.
Unions must follow through on ballot initiatives to reform healthcare finances
The healthcare industry has been the single most vigorous creator of jobs in the country in recent years. And healthcare has created a range of jobs, from hourly janitorial gigs to middle-class nursing positions to upper-middle class physicians and executives, to CEOs paid millions of dollars a year.
Many of the non-managerial jobs not only pay well, but are unionized. While unions have been slowly worn down and out in the automotive, aerospace and other sectors, they have become quite healthy, if not robust, in healthcare. The California Nurses Association, for example, was key to getting a staffing ratio mandate signed into law and surviving voluminous legal battles about a decade ago. Healthcare labor unions stage walkouts and work slowdowns on an ongoing basis throughout the country these days.
I.R.S. Ruling Is Obstacle to Health Care Networks Promoted by ACA
Health Care Costs for Average American Family Now Exceed $25,000 a Year
Major for-profit hospital operators’ bonds hit by downgrades
Forest Park shuts down Fort Worth hospital before Texas Health Resources takes over
Forest Park Medical Center Fort Worth was shut down late Tuesday and most of its employees laid off as Texas Health Resources wraps up its purchase of the bankrupt doctor-owned, luxury hospital on the city’s west side.
Justice Department accuses Ontario-based hospital chain of cheating Medicare system
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-prime-healthcare-20160525-snap-story.html
The U.S. Justice Department has joined a whistle-blower case against Prime Healthcare Services, adding significant weight to allegations of widespreadMedicare overbilling at 14 of the company’s hospitals in California. A Los Angeles magistrate judge granted the agency’s request to intervene in the case Tuesday, one day after the government declared in a court filing that its investigation of the Ontario- hospital operator has “yielded sufficient evidence” that the facilities “submitted or caused the submission of claims to Medicare for unnecessary inpatient stays.” Prime finds itself under federal scrutiny because of a whistle-blower complaint submitted in 2011 by Karin Berntsen, a registered nurse and director of quality and risk management at Alvarado Hospital in San Diego. Berntsen’s lawsuit accuses Prime of routinely making Medicare patients’ illnesses seem more severe than they really were in order to justify billing for additional services and increasing hospital admissions.
Another NYC Hospital to Disappear: Mount Sinai Beth Israel
Payer Consolidation Expected to Roll on Over Next Decade
Senior-level healthcare industry stakeholders believe that consolidation in the payer space is likely to continue over the next ten years—and not to the benefit of consumers.
HENRY KOTULA 