healthcare report news from FierceHealthcare

New York's Medicaid program has decided to stop reimbursing for avoidable hospital complications and medical errors it considers to be "never events." Starting in October, it won't pay for care Read more...

Now here's something you don't see every day. Rather than simply letting market forces prevail, Massachusetts health authorities proposed this week to protect suburban hospitals from competitive Read more...

A study using new methodology for detecting errors points up an alarming discrepancy between the level of potential harm children faced in hospitals, and what may actually be happening. The study, Read more...

For the first time, Medicare has released volume and payment information for a list of selected conditions, along with the results from its new consumer satisfaction survey, the Hospital Consumer Read more...

A new study by RAND Corp., Seattle Children's Hospital Research Institute and the University of Washington School of Medicine has reached the sobering conclusion that children may be getting worse Read more...

Despite claims to the contrary, veterans have often been forced to wait 30 days or more for care at VA hospitals, and many more may not be on its electronic waiting lists, according to a recently Read more...

The California Department of Insurers is engaging in a unique project--it plans to begin issuing a "healthcare report card" on six of the state's largest PPOs. The new report cards will include Read more...

Evidence continues to mount that medical tourism isn't just a novelty, but rather a real and increasingly-popular option for many patients. Currently, 150,000 Americans annually receive treatment in foreign countries, and that number is expanding a remarkable 15 percent to 20 percent per year--boosted by middleman companies like MedRetreat, IndUShealth and Planet Hospital which …

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Patients who wonder whether they should get procedures done at a cheaper India-based facility may get a boost from one hospital's series of YouTube promotions. Over the past month India's Wockhardt Hospital, already a haven for medical tourism, has seeded the popular video site with a series of slick videos promoting the sophistication and safety of its services, including brain tumor surgery, …

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A new report by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) claims that Boston teaching hospital Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is not playing fair when it comes to billing for charity care. The union says that that Beth Israel is being too aggressive in seeking compensation from a state pool set up to reimburse hospitals for giving free care to the uninsured. It contends that Beth Israel is billing too much for emergency department visits, and moreover, is being too aggressive …

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