Insurance company profiling methods used to classify physicians by costs in a two-tiered system misclassify physicians 22% of the time, according to estimates in a RAND Corp. report published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
HCA Corp.'s Gulf Coast division said it will end inpatient hospital operations at its 160-bed Spring Branch Medical Center in Houston by no later than May 1, 2010. The campus will continue to provide its outpatient programs, which include radiation...
By ROBERT LASZEWSKI As the Democrats make their final push to pass their health care bill many of them, and most notably the President, are arguing that it should be passed because it is the “right thing to do whatever...
Wholesale prices for acute-care hospitals rose 0.5% in February after a 0.4% rise the prior month, preliminary figures for the Bureau of Labor Statistics Producer Price Index show. The same month last year saw a 0.2% rise for wholesale acute-care...
By MAGGIE MAHAR Yesterday, the Democratic Caucus of the House listed the provisions of the health reform bill that will take effect “as soon as health care passes,” The legislation would: Prohibit pre-existing condition exclusions for children in all new...
The American Medical Association, which reported last month that most states' insurance markets are controlled by only two companies, has launched an online...
By PAUL LEVY If there is anything about economics that has been proven over and over, it is that price controls do not work. The unintended consequences are usually worse than the problem that led to the solution in the...
Health insurer WellPoint said it expects its 2010 operating revenue to be about $59 billion and its medical enrollment to total about 33.3 million members by year end, down about 400,000.
By JESSIE GRUMAN In the Oscar-nominated movie “Up in the Air,” Ryan Bingham (aka George Clooney), travels around the country firing employees for company bosses who don’t have the stomach to do it themselves -– the ones who prefer to...
