The Illinois Hospital Association's new president is bracing the group's member hospitals for a wave of mandates and regulations brought by federal reform of the healthcare system. Maryjane Wurth, who became president of the 200-member hospital association in October, said that hospitals face many implications regardless of which bill is signed into law by President Barack Obama. As part of Obama's push to improve quality and lower costs, for example, hospitals could see reduced payments from the federal Medicare health program for the elderly if mistakes or poor service were to lead to readmission of patients, Wurth told the Chicago Tribune.
