Costs & Cost Controls
Amazon shutting down its healthcare service
Editor's Note Amazon is shutting down Amazon Care by the end of the year, the August 24 Washington Post reports. Amazon Care was initially started as an internal healthcare offering for Amazon employees, but currently, it is available to employees of half a dozen corporate customers. Workers were told their healthcare…
Bundled payments: A win-win-win approach for ASCs
Healthcare costs in the US have increased exponentially in recent years. Surgical procedures are especially costly. Cost control without sacrificing high quality care is the ultimate goal for many surgical practices and payers. Alternative practices and payment models have been explored to meet this goal. Episode-based payments, more commonly known…
Survey: Most hospitals, health systems are increasing investment in ASCs
Editor's Note In this annual survey published by Avanza Healthcare Strategies and titled “2021–2022 Hospital Leadership ASC Survey,” senior healthcare executives and clinical leaders shared insights into hospital-owned and hospital-physician joint venture ambulatory surgery center (ASC) trends. The responses show that “hospitals and health systems of all sizes are expanding…
Senate passes healthcare bill including drug price reforms
Editor's Note On Sunday, August 7, the Senate passed a spending bill allocating billions of dollars to climate reform and healthcare focused programs, including provisions that give “Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices for a small subset of drugs” and extend “enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies” for 3 years,…
US uninsured rate reaches all-time low
Editor's Note The number of Americans without health insurance coverage has hit a record low of 8% this year, exceeding the previous low of 9% in 2016, the Department of Health and Human Services July 3 reports. Since 2020, 5.2 million people have gained coverage, including 4 million adults and…
A team approach to reducing instrumentation, costs during the age of COVID-19
ORs rebounding from the financial impact of COVID-19 are looking for ways to reduce expenses. With rising costs coming from all angles of the economy, some have adopted systemwide processes to reduce, streamline, and improve surgical instrumentation sets. Two major health systems, the Cleveland Clinic and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital…
Editorial
With inflation hitting yet another record-breaking high—9.1% at the time of publication—hospitals and health systems continue to contend with challenging supply chain disruptions that force leaders into a constant state of putting out fires. Supply chain issues are not new. But instead of having time to plan ahead and implement…
CMS issues proposed rule for hospital outpatient, ASC payment rates for CY 2023
Editor's Note The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on July 15 released its Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) proposed rule that would raise rates by a net 2.7% in CY 2023. This update is based on the projected hospital market basket percentage increase of 3.1%, reduced by 0.4%…
Epic’s revenue grew 13%, hit $3.8B in 2021
Editor's Note The healthcare software company Epic has been seeing an upward trend in its revenue, reporting “double-digits [growth] every year for the last decade,” Becker’s Health IT June 13 reports. Citing CB Insights and Forbes, Becker’s noted that Epic’s revenue grew by 13% in 2021 and hit $3.8 billion.…
Economic health of hospitals looks to be improving
Editor's Note According to a report from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), economic activity in the hospital subsector grew in June for the 25th consecutive month, Healthcare Purchasing News July 7 reports. Following are some observations, according to Nancy LeMaster, MBA, ISM chair for the Hospital Business Survey Committee:…
Free Daily News
- Artificial disc replacement proves safe, efficient, cost-saving in outpatient spine surgery
- Hospital-affiliated doctors drive highest costs by avoiding lower-cost sites
- Imposter syndrome widespread among surgical trainees, disproportionately affects women
- Global nursing workforce grows but inequities jeopardize health progress
- Largest US healthcare fraud case reveals billions in false Medicare, Medicaid claims and vast schemes nationwide
- Hospital margins improve as outpatient revenue accelerates, but costs loom
- Breast cancer surgery delays tied to higher upstaging, faster tumor growth
- Exercise programs ease stress and burnout for nurses, review finds
- WHO and robotic surgery society partner to expand global access to telesurgery
- Health systems lean toward established partners for AI adoption