Financial woes at Maine Medical
In a memo to its employees last week, one of Maine’s largest health systems said it has suffered an operating loss of $13.4 million in the first half of its fiscal year.
“Through March (six months of our fiscal year), Maine Medical Center experienced a negative financial position that it has not witnessed in recent memory,” Richard Petersen, president and CEO of the medical center, wrote in the memo to employees. A copy of the memo was sent to MedTech Media, publisher of Healthcare Finance News.
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Hospital safety shows little progress
A recent survey updating the Hospital Safety Score conducted by Leapfrog Group which assigns A through F letter grades for how well hospitals are addressing errors, accidents and infections that kill or hurt patients, shows only incremental progress over past reports.
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CMS issues proposed 2014 IPPS
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed late Friday its fiscal 2014 Medicare payment schedule. Included in the proposal are payment cuts to hospitals that treat uninsured individuals and slightly higher rates for acute care and long-term care hospitals. The proposal also prepares the groundwork for a program that imposes a penalty on facilities that lag on reducing the frequency of hospital-acquired conditions.
[See also: DSH cuts rattle urban hospital execs ]
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Trading for healthcare services
If there is one sure way to beat the high cost of offering healthcare benefits, it is to not pay for it. At least, not directly.
That is the strategy for a growing number of small businesses that are bartering to get healthcare services they otherwise couldn’t afford. It’s a strategy that also offers benefits for the healthcare businesses providing the services.
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Improving post-acute care coordination
Critically ill Medicare patients, who are battling for stable health at the end of life, are victims of repeated hospitalizations, especially after being discharged to a skilled nursing facility (SNF). The cycle of hospitalizations is an indicator of poor care coordination and discharge planning -- causing the patient to get sicker after every "bounce back" to the hospital.
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CMS publishes hospital price data
In an effort to take the first steps toward a more transparent pricing structure in the U.S. healthcare market, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services yesterday published nationwide hospital charge data showing wide variations in how much Medicare pays for services in different markets.
The data, which encompasses the 100 most commonly billed discharges was collected from more than 3,000 hospitals and represented more than 7 million discharges – roughly 60 percent of all Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) payments for 2011.
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Healthcare workers looking for new jobs
Healthcare workers are burned out – so much so that more than a third of them say they plan to look for a new job this year, according to a new survey from CareerBuilder.
Thirty-four percent of healthcare workers – up from 24 percent in 2012 – say they will look for a new job in 2013 while 45 percent said they will look for a new job sometime in the next two years. Eighty-two percent said that even though they’re not actively looking for a new job, they’d be open to a new one if the right opportunity came along.
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Fraud recoveries on the rise
GlaxoSmithKline, $3 billion. Abbott Laboratories, $1.5 billion. Merck, $950 million. Senior Care Action Network, $323.7 million. Actavis, $202.6 million. The numbers are eye-popping. Now for the jaw drop: of these top five healthcare False Claims Act settlements in 2012, all were initiated by whistle-blowers.
The healthcare industry is on notice: Fraud recoveries in the healthcare sector are on the rise and whistle-blowers are the biggest weapon in the fight against fraud.
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mHealth needs to focus on consumers
A panel of telemedicine industry executives took on the topic of user-friendly design Monday afternoon at the American Telemedicine Association's18th Annual International Meeting & Trade Show. Their conclusion: Healthcare needs to design new methods of care delivery that appeal to the consumer.
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Direct-care workers apply pressure
Supporters of a proposed rule to change the companion exemption in the Fair Labor Standards Act pressured the Obama administration last week to make a final ruling.
“We’re calling on the Obama administration to move quickly to finalize as published this rule,” said Carol Regan, director of governmental affairs at the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute (PHI), in her opening remarks during a telebriefing.
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