emergency care news from FierceHealthcare

Illinois is well on the way to passing a bill that would create a network of hospitals specializing in stroke treatment. The bill, which is headed for Gov. Pat Quinn, would allow ambulances to bypass... Read more...

Wow, this honeymoon didn't last. The ink was barely dry on HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius' appointment as agency chief this week when the country's largest emergency physicians' group came out to... Read more...

Flood newspapers, radio and television with publicity about a potentially deadline pandemic, and what do you get? Well, overflowing emergency departments, for one thing. Many U.S. hospitals are being... Read more...

> Hoping to avoid further bad debt, hospitals are setting systems in place to avoid providing non-emergency ED care. Read more...

As health reform efforts proceed, policymakers are realizing that part of taming the system is dealing with the management of costly chronic conditions. To address the problem, a chronic care... Read more...

CMS has begun looking for home health agencies to participate in a new pay-for-performance program which will look at whether the agencies can simultaneously improve care and cut costs for Medicare.... Read more...

> Several states have come together to mount a federal challenge to the Bush administration's refusal to let them expand their S-CHIP programs. Read more...

While $25 million is a drop in the bucket, it's still noteworthy to see HHS stepping up to the problem of emergency department capacity and preparedness for public health emergencies. The agency... Read more...

CMS is putting its foot down when it comes to emergency care. New guidance from CMS says that like it or not, the majority of hospitals who accept Medicare must provide emergency services. The only hospitals exempt from offering initial treatment and transfers are small, rural hospitals. Otherwise, even facilities such as specialty hospitals must fall into line, even if they don't have emergency departments. Before getting this feedback, some hospitals have relied on the crude expedient …

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According to a new report by state investigators, a New Jersey program designed to help the poor and uninsured get emergency care is being sapped by waste and fraud due to poor oversight by hospitals and state officials. The state currently pays hospitals a portion of the cost of emergency care for some 300,000 poor state residents with no health coverage. This year, the program should spend $583.4 million on charity care, partly drawing on funds from federal sources. The problem is that …

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