emergency department news from FierceHealthFinance
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The illness hospitals don't want to treat
Nobody should have been surprised, but there it is. A study cited last week in FierceHealthcare concluded that the number of Americans with chronic mental health conditions is even larger than once... Read more...
Study: Medical homes boost quality, cut costs
The patient-centered medical home model is looking sexier by the minute, with studies increasingly suggesting that it works well on financial and clinical grounds. This time, it's a study done by the... Read more...
Health reform may be a mixed blessing
By most accounts, health reform is likely to be a financial blessing, with far fewer patients coming through the emergency department needlessly and far fewer incurring uncollectible debts. To some... Read more...
SPOTLIGHT: Harvard mobile van saves health system $20M
Harvard Medical School has run a "curbside clinic" van for 17 years, offering free tests and health counseling in low income neighborhoods. This, of course, is a great community service. What's... Read more...
HCA makes more than $75M with ED coding procedure
Coding is one of those dismal sciences that makes a big impact, but isn't exactly the sexiest part of a hospital's operations. This time around, however, the coding geeks had their day. Hospital... Read more...
Community clinics cutting services to undocumented immigrants
With the economy continuing to languish, community health clinics are beginning to look at cutting services to undocumented immigrants as a means of staying afloat financially. According to the Pew... Read more...
U of Chicago postpones ED diversion program
As we'd reported previously, the University of Chicago Medical Center recently set plans to begin diverting patients away from its emergency department who weren't acutely sick. The hospital intended... Read more...
SPOTLIGHT: FL health plans increase prices 25 percent
During the first three quarters of 2008, health insurers hiked up per-member, per-month costs for emergency department and out-of-area services a substantial 25 percent. Health plans in Florida say... Read more...
Making tough decisions on charity care
As I read over the discussion on whether hospitals should ship medically-indigent immigrants back to their home countries, it occurs to me that most of the back-and-forth avoids discussing the... Read more...
Weather extremes can increase hospital bad debt
When it gets blazing hot outside in the summertime, or freezing cold during the winter, most people don't think about these events as potential sources of bad debt. But that's a concern hospital... Read more...
