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A new pilot program underway at a string of federally-funded community health centers hopes to improve patient care and lower costs by involving pharmacists in the care of chronically-ill patients.... Read more...

CMS is lowering the boom on physician self-referral, setting plans to ban Medicare payments for many self-referred services. New CMS rules on this subject, which are part of regs proposed for the... Read more...

Massachusetts hospitals treating high numbers of uninsured patients are protesting changes to state funding policy which they say could cost the big bucks. Traditionally, Massachusetts hospitals have... Read more...

African-Americans in the U.S. often get lower-quality nursing home care than whites, according to a new study published in the journal Health Affairs. The wide-ranging study, which was funded by the... Read more...

A growing number of former auto-industry workers who accepted buyouts from auto makers are now looking into healthcare jobs. The workers include former Ford employees, many of whom accepted a buyout... Read more...

A recent study suggests physicians may be dismissing or minimizing patient complaints about possible side effects from statin drugs like Lipitor, Zocor and Crestor. University of California-San Diego... Read more...

In a decision that could have major implications for the transparency movement, HHS will be forced to release Medicare claims data for physicians practicing in Illinois, Maryland, Virginia,... Read more...

Kaiser is being forced to defend a Bakersfield, Calif.-area staff physician against claims she committed gross negligence when she failed to admit a sick patient to the hospital. The state medical... Read more...

Continuing with an ongoing industry-wide investigation, the California Department of Insurance has cited WellPoint subsidiary BC Life & Health for improperly revoking individual health insurance policies. BC Life & Health, which revoked 1,880 individual policies during 2004 and 2005, already was being sued by consumer advocates and lawyers for policyholders over the cancellations. Now it's facing the wrath of the Department of Insurance, which has found that more than half of the …

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With its high-profile legal troubles in the past, Tenet Healthcare executives say that they're turning operations around, with a range of initiatives including physician sales and service programs, improvements efforts targeting under-performing facilities and a "targeted growth" program designed to restructure services within individual hospitals. Execs are also restructuring …

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