The only CEO Smyrna, TN-based StoneCrest Medical Center has ever had is stepping down, according to a hospital board member. Neil Heatherly, who started as CEO in 2001 when the hospital was still in the planning stages, announced his resignation at a board meeting. Joe Bowman, who is currently CFO, will act as CEO until a replacement is found.
As Newton-Wellesley Hospital prepares to discuss making monetary contributions to Framingham (MA) if it expands into the town, Newton defends its decision not to pursue such payments. The Framingham Planning Board is holding hearings on the hospital's request to build a $17.5 million outpatient treatment and surgical center. Framingham collects about $95,000 in taxes on the 3-acre commercial property. Newton-Wellesley Hospital, a tax-exempt institution with nearly 26 acres of property in Newton, does not make payments in lieu of taxes to the city. However, it pays nearly $531,500 in taxes on a parking garage, doctors' offices, and other taxable property.
The $630 billion healthcare "reserve fund" described in President Obama's budget relies on a combination of tax increases and savings in Medicare and Medicaid spending. But just what do those spending cuts look like?
Denis Cortese is stepping down later this year from his job as Mayo Clinic CEO. Cortese has had the job since 2002, and he's become more involved in national health policy in the past few years. Here Cortese discusses with the Wall Street Journal Health Blog about what he'll be doing next.
Only about 17% of the nation's physicians are using computerized patient records, according to a government-sponsored survey published last year in The New England Journal of Medicine. That market failure is a principal target of the Obama administration’s plan: A main feature of the legislation calls for incentive payments of more than $40,000 spread over a few years for a physician who buys and uses electronic health records. A crucial bridge to success, according to experts, will be how local organizations help doctors in small offices adopt and use electronic records.
Almost every business in the country is feeling buffeted by the recession, but for health insurance companies the bleak economy is only part of the problem. The changing of the guard in Washington is an equal if not more dangerous threat, and together these forces could deal a body blow to a business model that was already teetering. Health plans are losing millions of members who say they can no longer afford their products. Some big employers are becoming increasingly frustrated about how much they spend on health benefits. Smaller ones are being crushed by ever-rising healthcare costs. In addition, the Republicans who pushed to expand the role of private players in the healthcare system have largely been replaced by Democrats who want to overhaul it.