Veterans Health Administration (VHA) news from FierceHealthcare

Despite some major challenges, community benefit programs at not-for-profit health systems are growing, according to a recent survey by the Catholic Health Association and VHA. The survey, which Read more...

According to a survey by the Catholic Health Association of the United States (CHA) and consulting firm VHA Inc., a limited staff poses the most problems for not-for-profit hospitals. Two hundred Read more...

A Texas cancer center is considering what must be a difficult move: it's thinking about ceasing to offer cancer care to indigent and undocumented immigrants. The hospital, the University of Texas Read more...

HHS is giving federally-qualified community health centers a bit of a break. It has loosened up its its anti-kickback rules in a way which should make it easier for them to partner with hospitals, Read more...

The vast majority of hospitals don't take all of the recommended steps needed to prevent hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), according to a new survey by Leapfrog Group. To draw this conclusion, Read more...

Officials with the State of New York said this week they'd decided to mount a new initiative to fight hospital-acquired infections. The move fits in with a growing movement by states to fight HAIs, Read more...

Hospital-acquired infections in Massachusetts add as much as $473 million a year to healthcare costs, according to a state-funded study, leading to a recommendation Massachusetts require hospitals to Read more...

Of late, state and federal regulators have been challenging non-profit hospitals to prove they deserve their tax exemption. Hospital associations, health systems and individual facilities have responded by aggressively touting their estimates of the community benefit and levels of uncompensated care that they provide.

This exercise is important for all U.S. non-profits, but there's even more at …

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Nearly all of Wisconsin's hospitals--a full 95 percent--are not-for-profits that enjoy a state property tax exemption. Despite resistance from the hospitals, the state is continuing to look at recouping some of that revenue with a separate hospital-specific tax. State governor Jim Doyle (D) wants to impose an 0.8 percent tax on the state's 109 non-profit hospitals, which he says will generate $418 million in revenues for the state over the next two years. The proposal has been posted by a …

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Pennsylvania's hospitals are fighting to sideline a bill which would make them report on hospital-acquired infections (HAIs) through a single statewide electronic system. Establishing such a system is one of a group of health reform initiatives Governor Ed Rendell (D) is trying to implement. Rendell has said that HAIs generated $3.5 billion in charges last year. According to the state's Health Care Cost Containment Council, 19,000 patients suffered from HAIs in 2005, or about 1 percent of …

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