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IASIS Healthcare fourth quarter net revenue decreases 2.2% to $633.0 million

IASIS Healthcare LLC, today announced financial and operating results for the fiscal fourth quarter and year ended September 30, 2012.

6 Dec 2012

Political cartoon: '3-2-1 Liftoff?'

Kaiser Health News provides a fresh take on health policy developments with '3-2-1 Liftoff?' By Lisa Benson.

6 Dec 2012

First Edition: December 6, 2012

Today's headlines include a report that some in the GOP are urging lawmakers to support the idea of trading tax breaks for changes in safety-net programs.

6 Dec 2012

Health stocks embraced amid market uncertainty

The Wall Street Journal reports that following President Barack Obama's re-election, health stocks are viewed as a port in the storm. Other news outlets explore how the markets have remained stable during the 'fiscal cliff' negotiations as investors count on an eleventh-hour deal.

6 Dec 2012

Overlap in competing budget proposals points way to deal

The Associated Press reports the White House and House Republicans have identified areas of significant overlap that could form the basis for an agreement after posturing gives way to actual bargaining.

6 Dec 2012

Government announces fraud collections hit record $5 billion

The Justice Department's civil division recovered a record $5 billion in the past fiscal year from companies that defrauded taxpayers, with much of the abuse occurring in the health care and mortgage industries.

6 Dec 2012

Health care programs a clear target in deficit reduction efforts

As negotiators debate proposals to trim entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, stakeholders ranging from public hospitals to physician groups lobby to protect their interests.

6 Dec 2012

Supreme Court hears arguments in hospitals' Medicare claims lawsuit

A majority of Supreme Court justices on Tuesday sounded skeptical of a suit brought by hospitals to reopen Medicare claims as much as 25 years old because of calculations that were found to have underpaid them.

6 Dec 2012

African American women less likely to receive axillary SLN biopsy for breast cancer

African American women with early stage, invasive breast cancer were 12 percent less likely than Caucasian women with the same diagnosis to receive a minimally invasive technique, axillary sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy, years after the procedure had become the standard of surgical practice, according to research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

6 Dec 2012

Two simple cost-effective methods can reduce expensive postoperative complications

As the nation grapples with surging health care costs, researchers at the University of Connecticut Health Center, Farmington, and Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Hartford, have confirmed two simple cost-effective methods to reduce expensive postoperative complications-communications team training and a surgical checklist.

6 Dec 2012

Viewpoints: Sen. Whitehouse argues deficit fix shouldn't be about Medicare; Is a plunge over the cliff so bad?

As President Barack Obama and congressional leaders continue discussions to avert the so-called fiscal cliff - the mix of tax increases and spending cuts set to take effect automatically in January - we hear a troubling but familiar refrain in Washington: To fix our deficit, we must cut Medicare benefits.

6 Dec 2012

University of Kentucky creates new working model for EHR reporting of cancer cases

The University of Kentucky has created the nation's first working model for electronic health record (EHR) reporting of cancer cases to the state's cancer registry.

5 Dec 2012

Software to curb hospital readmissions?

Stung by a multimillion-dollar penalty for failing to meet new patient readmissions standards set by Medicare, UMass Memorial Health Care is using transaction analytics software to reduce frequent and costly readmissions for patients with heart attacks, heart failure and pneumonia.

5 Dec 2012

Trouble spot in fiscal talks: The down payment

Although there appears to be general agreement about tax code and entitlement changes that would begin next year and tally more than $1 trillion over 10 years, the initial installment of deficit reduction has become a sticking point between the White House and GOP leaders. Meanwhile, the Washington Post checks the facts on entitlement "spending cuts."

5 Dec 2012

Tennessee nursing-care company charged with Medicare fraud

A Tennessee-based nursing-care company systematically defrauded Medicare of millions of dollars by pressuring therapists to perform expensive, unnecessary treatments, according to a recently unsealed federal complaint.

5 Dec 2012

GOP counteroffer includes raising Medicare's eligibility age to 67

The Republican marker, which was almost immediately rebuffed by the White House, includes cuts to federal safety net programs, but does not meet the president's "test of balance" because it rejects tax increases for the wealthy.

5 Dec 2012

Stakeholders focus on addressing Medicare physician payment issues

Stakeholders worry that, although a "doc fix" is likely to be included in a broad deficit-reduction deal, steps also need to be taken immediately to prevent scheduled Medicare physician payment cuts from kicking in.

5 Dec 2012

Converting 'moral entitlements' into life-long AIDS treatment commitments

"Many currently believe that U.S. domestic entitlements are too large, but disregard the fact that the PEPFAR program has created a new class of moral entitlements overseas -- in the form of four million and counting people receiving U.S.-supported life-sustaining AIDS treatment in low- and middle-income countries around the world," Mead Over, a senior fellow at the CGD, writes in the Center for Global Development's (CGD) "Global Health Policy" blog.

5 Dec 2012

HHS says health law changes to Medicare drug program saved seniors $5 billion

The administration announces that almost 2.8 million people have saved an average $677, because the law is closing the prescription drug doughnut hole.

5 Dec 2012

Roundup: Building more Texas medical schools; Calif. mental health care for children

Recommendations in a new draft report on Texas undergraduate medical education caution against rushing to build any new medical schools, which may irk those that are pushing to do exactly that. The report was prepared by the staff of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and posted on the agency's website on Monday in preparation for an upcoming meeting of their Task Force on Graduate Health Professions.

5 Dec 2012