revenues

California's proposition 86 has been defeated in this week's mid-term vote. The proposition would have boosted the tax on cigarettes from $.87 to $2.60 per pack, as well as boosting taxes on products like cigars and smokeless tobacco. The measure was projected to bring in an estimated $2.1 billion, and save $16 billion in state health costs. California would have used the revenues to fund hospital services, provide health insurance for children, support medical research and provide …

> According to newly-released research, healthcare providers are setting aside $129 billion annually to cover bad debt, or more than twice their net annual revenues. Release

> Patients continue to wait as UnitedHealthcare and HealthAlliance continue to duke it out over a contract dispute. Report

> Wrong-site surgeries may be 20 …

Former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is criticizing a government estimate that suggests that improving information technology services at hospitals and doctors' offices would lead to an increase in costs and a decrease in revenues. A number of prominent backers of the health information technology bill urged a delay of the vote on the legislation after the CBO released the estimate. Gingrich tells Modern Healthcare: "The CBO blatantly ignores the economic growth efficiencies …

A new study finds that tight Medicare and Medicaid payment policies are costing consumers and employers billions of dollars a year as hospitals and physicians raise rates to compensate. The research, which was conducted by Premera Blue Cross in Washington State, reports that in 2004 hospitals charged private payers an additional $738 million to make up the difference, a sum that made up 14.3 percent of their revenue. Physicians charged private payers $620 million--or 12.3 percent of their …

Humana reported a 22 percent decline in first quarter profits Monday, blaming startup costs for the Medicare drug benefit. The company said its Medicare revenues climbed to $1.25 billion, or 127 percent. Humana has signed up the second most customers to its Medicare Part D plans among insurers, trailing only UnitedHealth group. Humana says it has signed up 1.96 million customers to its stand-alone drug plan. It predicts that it will be able to sign up 2.7 million customers by the end of …

A Kansas woman has filed a class action lawsuit against hospital giant HCA accusing the chain of causing her husband's death by adopting employment policies that have lead to a nationwide shortage of qualified nurses. Mildred Spires says her husband died at HCA's Wesley Medical Center in 2004 as a result of inadequate care. Her suit seeks to force the hospital chain to pay damages of $12.5 billion to patients who have been treated at its facilities over the past decade. Spires is …

A group of 24 Tennessee hospitals, including Vanderbilt Medical Center, is suing the Department of Health and Human Services to recoup $200 million in payments they say they are owed for treating low-income Medicaid patients. Lawyers for the group say the government reneged on an earlier commitment to pay back the hospitals for care that had been provided to low-income patients who did not qualify for TennCare, the state's program for the disadvantaged. The hospitals say they're being …

BusinessWeek looks at the evolving market for cancer treatment, examining the success of for-profit providers like U.S. Oncology and Cancer Treatment Centers of America. The magazine reports that personalized care and the promise of specialized treatment are drawing growing numbers of patients away from traditional providers. Privately-held U.S. Oncology now operates 97 facilities across the country and has annual revenues of $2.5 billion.

- read this BusinessWeek article

VISICU, the maker of remote monitoring systems for intensive care units, turned a profit of $10 million on revenues of $18 million last year according to a filing with the SEC. That performance was a marked improvement over a year earlier, when the company lost $4 million. VISICU, which is known for its eICU system and is considered a market leader, plans to go public later this year. The company expects shares to go for between $11 and $13. VISICU was founded by Dr. Brian Rosenfeld and …

Attorneys for patients who must have Guidant pacemakers removed say the company's offer of $2,500 doesn't come anywhere near covering the costs of the procedure. The pacemaker recall affects thousands of patients who learned they have faulty pacemakers and defibrillators when Guidant disclosed a series of serious malfunctions involving the units. The replacement surgery is proving difficult, heart specialists say, because of a risk that the lead attaching the device to the heart can …