Abington, Jefferson health systems merge; Fla. governor wants to study hospital funding;

News From Around the Web

> Abington Health has completed its merger with Thomas Jefferson University and its affiliated hospitals, forming one nonprofit healthcare organization that will serve a large swath of the Philadelphia region, according to an announcement from Abington Health. Announcement

> Because of the high cost of certifying staff to use special chambers that treat acute smoke inhalation cases, two recent victims of a house fire in Corryville, Ohio, could not be treated at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center and instead had to be flown to a facility in Columbus, local radio station WCPO reports. Article

> Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican and former hospital executive who is locked in a battle of wills with state and federal powers over Medicaid expansion, says he wants a new commission to study healthcare costs and hospital funding in the state, local TV station News4Jax reports. Article

Health IT News

> Since the launch in 2012 of President Barack Obama's White House Rural Council initiative, $1 billion has been invested across 13 states to help health systems with health IT goals, according to National Coordinator for Health IT Karen DeSalvo. Article

Practice Management News

> Patients with cardiovascular disease receive comparable primary care when treated by physicians or non-physicians, yet there's room for both types of clinicians to improve respectively and in teams, according to new research published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. Article

And Finally… #Busted. Article