October 2011 Issue of Becker's Hospital Review

Looking Back to Move Ahead: Leading Hospitals Through Fast-Paced Change

Healthcare executives might remember time moving a bit more slowly before March 23, 2010. That was the day President Obama penned his signature, supposedly letter by letter, onto the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Click to continue »

False Claims Based on Unneeded Procedures: 4 Strategies for Compliance

Federal and state regulators have increased scrutiny around false claims involving medically unnecessary services in recent years. Click to continue »

Non-Profit Hospitals Taking More Aggressive Stance Toward M&A, But Deals Aren’t Always Easy

Hospitals, health systems and physician's practices are forming partnerships at an accelerated rate, almost as if they were going out of style. Click to continue »

Publisher’s Letter October 2011

Becker’s Hospital Review Annual CEO Strategy Roundtable; CEO and CFO Annual Strategy Webinar; 2012 Becker’s Hospital Review Annual Meeting Click to continue »

Becker’s Hospital Review Annual CEO Strategy Roundtable

Becker's Hospital Review hosted its Hospital Strategy Roundtable this summer at the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago, bringing together seven hospital industry leaders from across the country to discuss current challenges and opportunities facing the industry, how hospital strategy will need to change to survive and which strategies will provide a foundation for long-term success. Click to continue »

Big Pain or Big Gain? Important Factors for Hospitals Considering Partnerships With Retail Clinics

Hospitals and health systems partnering with retail clinics, such as CVS' MinuteClinic and Walgreens' Take Care Clinic, is a growing trend. Click to continue »

Creating an Outcomes-Based Culture: How to Engage Front-Line Staff in Process Improvement

Healthcare reform has drawn a great deal of attention toward bending the cost curve in healthcare, and the Affordable Care Act introduces a number of new programs and initiatives that aim to achieve this. Click to continue »

56 Women Hospital and Healthcare Leaders to Know

Becker's Hospital Review has named the following female leaders to its annual list, "56 Women Hospital and Healthcare Leaders to Know." Click to continue »

Shattering Glass Ceilings: Women in the Hospital C-Suite

Healthcare reform has sparked a conversation over the changing role of the hospital executive — the new skill sets leaders will need to develop, the challenge of dealing with change at a rapid pace. Click to continue »

When Physician Employment Doesn’t Make Sense: How to Turn Away Physicians Seeking Employment

Physician employment at hospitals is steadily growing, and is expected to reach unprecedented levels in the coming years. Click to continue »

Study: Push for Market Share Trumps Clinical Integration in Hospitals’ Rush for Physician Employment

While not new, the pace of hospital employment of physicians has quickened in many communities, driven largely by hospitals' quest to increase market share and revenue, according to a study released today by the Center for Studying Health System Change. Click to continue »

Survey: Most Medical Practices Operating at a Loss

A recent study by the American Medical Group Association found most medical groups across the country are operating at a loss. Click to continue »

6 Ways Hospitals Can Survive the Onslaught of Medicare Cuts

Although healthcare leaders are concerned about major cuts in Medicare funding, many may not grasp the true scope and impact of these reductions on hospital operations and the delivery of care. Click to continue »

CMS Issues Final IPPS Rule, Net Medicare Reimbursements to Increase 1.1%

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued its final IPPS rules that will implement a 1.1 percent net increase, compared with FY 2011, in total Medicare operating payments to acute-care hospitals, according to a CMS news release. Click to continue »

5 Ways to Improve a Hospital’s Bottom Line Through the Revenue Cycle

A hospital's revenue cycle management team has to balance a large amount of tasks at once every day: preauthorization, precertification, underpayment collection, delays in payments, ICD-10 transition and more. Click to continue »

Survey: Roughly 7 out of 10 Hospitals Collect Less Than 30% of Payments at Point of Service

Approximately 70 percent of hospitals and health systems collect less than 30 percent of their payments at the point of service, according to a TransUnion Healthcare survey. Click to continue »

HHS Announces New Bundled Payment Initiative

The Department of Health and Human Services has introduced a new program, Bundled Payments for Care Improvement, to improve healthcare for patients while they are in a hospital and after they are discharged, according to a CMS news release. Click to continue »

The Case for Making Anesthesia the “Face” of Surgical Services

Anesthesiologists are sometimes called the "lone wolves" of surgery. Often, these physicians work solo in the operating room and exist on the periphery of the ordinarily close-knit professional circles of surgeons and nurses. Click to continue »

The One Change ORs Should Make to Improve Efficiency: 5 Responses

Improving an operating room's efficiency may seem daunting due to the number of factors involved, such as timing, patient safety, leadership and OR group cooperation. Click to continue »

HHS Review Could Impact Physician Supervision Requirements for Anesthesia Care

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services official announced on Tuesday that CMS is developing a proposed rule to remove "obsolete or burdensome requirements" from the agency's regulatory structure, a move that could impact anesthesiology, according to an ASA release. Click to continue »

Private Equity Investing in Healthcare — 13 Hot and 4 Cold Areas

Healthcare reform, the debt crisis and the continual regulatory changes that characterize the healthcare and life sciences industries have created certain shifts in the prospects of healthcare investments. Click to continue »

Hospital & Health System Transactions (October 2011)

Meridian, Miss.-based Anderson Regional Medical Center and Philadelphia, Miss.-based Neshoba County General Hospital-Nursing Home officially entered into an affiliation. The affiliation gives NCGH access to ARMC’s comprehensive cancer center. Click to continue »

Hospital & Health System Executive Moves (October 2011)

Baltimore Washington Medical Center in Glen Burnie, Md., named Ronald J. Andro as the medical center’s new senior vice president and COO. Click to continue »