Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Mike Colias.
Managed care companies have regained the upper hand in contract negotiations with hospitals--at least temporarily--thanks to a consolidation trend that is creating mega-firms with national reaches and to a surprise ruling by the Federal Trade Commission. But hospitals are exploring strategies of their own that they hope will win back leverage.
In the absence of an ambitious federal effort to reduce the number of Americans without health care insurance-45 million and climbing-states around the country are considering their own solutions. The details and scope of these proposals vary widely, and in all cases, the implications for hospitals are enormous.
With MedPAC recommending extending the ban on new specialty hospital construction as well as changes to Medicare's payment structure, all eyes now turn to Congress for what portends to be a contentious face-off.
Five years ago, only a handful of pioneering providers knew anything about chronic disease registries, but pressure to better manage chronic illnesses has pushed them into the spotlight. Proponents say registries, which track key data for patients with specific diseases, are a relatively simple step toward a broader disease management program.
Negotiating IT contracts isn't for the faint of heart. Increasingly, hospitals are demanding that vendors share some of the financial and legal risk in case of product failure or an error.
A consolidation trend among consulting companies has created a number of mega-firms designed to see hospital projects through from conception to implementation.
More than a decade after Hurricane Andrew devastated much of South Florida and a year after a series of killer storms battered the state, hospitals there offer stark lessons--as well as inspiration and hope--for their counterparts reeling from Hurricane Katrina.
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Health care information technology leaders and others are coming together to share scary experiences and develop best practices to guard against crippling computer viruses, scheming hackers and other cyber threats.
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