By Shawn Rhea September 01, 2010 ProAssurance Corp., a medical-liability company based in Birmingham, Ala., has agreed to pay $32.50 a share to acquire the Austin, Texas-based medical-liability insurer American Physicians Service Group. ... FULL STORY
By Vince Galloro September 01, 2010 Carolinas HealthCare System, Charlotte, said it has acquired a 10-physician cardiology group and merged it into its existing cardiology practice. Heart Group of the Carolinas is now part of the system's Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. ... FULL STORY
By the Associated Press August 31, 2010 The Obama administration has appealed a federal judge's order that undercuts federally funded embryonic stem-cell research. ... FULL STORY
By Shawn Rhea August 31, 2010 The American Society for Radiation Oncology has implemented a restructuring plan that calls for the professional society to be organized into four new divisions: advocacy and clinical affairs, member relations and communications, education, and finance and administration. ... FULL STORY
August 31, 2010 The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act along with other economic forces will dramatically change the way hospitals and physicians work with one another. To help measure that change, Modern Healthcare, in partnership with Press Ganey, is conducting an industrywide survey on hospital-physician relations. ... FULL STORY
By Jessica Zigmond August 31, 2010 Flu vaccination of healthcare personnel is a patient-safety concern practice that should be a condition of both initial and continued employment at healthcare facilities, according to a position paper released by the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, or SHEA. ... FULL STORY
By Joseph Conn August 30, 2010 One of the final missing pieces in the federal electronic health-record subsidy program has fallen into place.HHS named the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, Chicago, and the Drummond Group, Austin, Texas, as organizations qualified to test and certify electronic health-record systems as capable of meeting meaningful-use criteria under the federal IT subsidy program established by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. ... FULL STORY
By Melanie Evans August 30, 2010 The American Medical Group Association has become one of the latest groups to launch an initiative aimed at providers seeking to develop accountable care organizations, a payment model that Medicare may pilot starting in 2012 under the health reform law. ... FULL STORY
By Andis Robeznieks / HITS staff writer August 27, 2010 The Wisconsin Relay for Electronic Data for Health, also known as WIRED for Health, submitted its plan (PDF) to HHS for a statewide electronic health information-exchange network, and it includes a suggested framework for the governance and financing of the network, the services it would provide and the technical architecture it would require. ... FULL STORY
By Jennifer Lubell August 27, 2010 The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee claims that CMS Administrator Don Berwick, M.D., is refusing to hand over key funding information about his former employer, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. ... FULL STORY
By Jennifer Lubell August 26, 2010 The CMS should withdraw any changes it has proposed to Medicare's Economic Index until a comprehensive review of the MEI is completed, the American Medical Association stated in comments to the agency on the proposed physician fee schedule for 2011. ... FULL STORY
By Andis Robeznieks August 26, 2010 The National Medical Association installed Leonard Weather Jr., M.D., a Shreveport, La.-based gynecologist, as its 111th president during the organization's recent annual convention and scientific assembly in Orlando, and Weather told the 3,500 attendees that he will focus on healthcare disparities and women's health issues as healthcare reform moves into its next stage. ... FULL STORY
By Jennifer Lubell August 25, 2010 In its comments on the proposed 2011 physician fee schedule, the Medical Group Management Association strongly urged the CMS to revise the penalties slated for its e-prescribing incentives program. ... FULL STORY
By Jennifer Lubell August 25, 2010 The healthcare reform legislation approved this year has the capacity to reduce the projected budget deficit by $30 billion over the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office estimates. ... FULL STORY
By Jennifer Lubell August 24, 2010 The Association of American Medical Colleges is urging the CMS to act on the physician lobby's No. 1 priority: a permanent solution to Medicare's troubled payment formula. ... FULL STORY
By Rebecca Vesely August 24, 2010 Twenty health plans have been fined a total of $716,800 by the New York State Insurance Department for violating a state claims payment law. ... FULL STORY
By Jennifer Lubell August 24, 2010 Recovery Act investments in health information technology are making headway in improving patient care and reducing medical errors, according to a new White House report. ... FULL STORY
By Gregg Blesch August 23, 2010 A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Obama administration's move to provide public funding for embryonic stem-cell research. ... FULL STORY
By Jessica Zigmond August 23, 2010 HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has announced $32 million in funding to help improve access to healthcare services for rural Americans. The funding will be allocated to seven programs that are administered by the Office of Rural Health Policy in HHS' Health Resources and Services Administration. ... FULL STORY
By Andis Robeznieks August 23, 2010 Craig Lenz has been appointed dean of the proposed Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine in Dothan, which will be developed by the Houston County Healthcare Authority and is expected to open in the fall of 2012. ... FULL STORY
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