Health System

State governments have a unique opportunity to transform the current health care system into one that provides higher-quality care at lower costs.

Steven D. Shapiro, MD, executive vice president, chief medical and science officer, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, says healthcare reform's biggest benefit is that it is leading care from a system that is volume based to one that is value based.

David B. Hoyt, MD, FACS, executive director, American College of Surgeons (ACS), says their National Surgical Improvement Program is designed to help hospitals evaluate where they stand with certain complications, and to then help them through a series of techniques to improve the care around those complications.

A new study by researchers at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and McGill University in Montreal reveals that the United States health care system ranks 22nd out of 27 high-income nations when analyzed for its efficiency of turning dollars spent into extending lives.

Chris Belmont, vice president and chief information officer, MD Anderson Cancer Center, says that health systems like Ochsner are using data to validate what they already know about certain patient cases.

Palliative care adapted to specific high-risk patients' needs can reduce emergency room visits, improve overall care and drive down healthcare costs, but the current policy and practice framework presents numerous obstacles to its implementation.

Ora Pescovitz, MD, CEO of the Michigan Health System, says that academic medical centers like those at the University of Michigan are among those in the lead with patient-centered medical homes (PCMHs) and accountable care organizations (ACOs).

Take a mental snapshot of the U.S. health care system as it is today, because in 10 years, you might not recognize it. And if something isn't done now to boost the number of doctors in the U.S., you may not like it, either.

Hospitals spend less on operations-largely by squeezing labor costs-to make up for lost revenue when Medicare cuts hospital prices, according to a study.

The merger wave sweeping up Massachusetts hospitals and doctors threatens to increase health care prices and widen the payment gap between providers, according to warnings from industry leaders, health insurers, and regulators at a hearing Wednesday.

Optimizing the length of stay at a hospital is critical to patient health outcomes, and more importantly, controlling healthcare costs.

Seven systems that include 25 hospitals in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania have formed an alliance to build expertise in population health management and capitalize on economies of scale without the complications of merging assets.

Access to affordable, quality healthcare for poor Americans varies dramatically among the states, according to a new study that found a wide disparity in measures of health between states with the best healthcare systems and those with the worst.

Patrick Courneya, MD, CHIE, health plan medical director, HealthPartners, Inc, says that his organization sees a wide variety of models in Minnesota.

When it comes to controlling healthcare costs, only 36% of physicians agree that practicing physicians have a major responsibility to participate in cost containment, according to a recent study.

Adhering to the best practices in cancer care may be the answer many oncologists have been looking for, at least according to one hospital's findings.

Robert Williams, MD, director, Deloitte, Consulting LLP, says physician integration is driven predominantly by the department of justice, and FTC regulations that require physicians to meet the definition of clinical integration.

Hospitals across the nation are being swept up in the biggest wave of mergers since the 1990s, a development that is creating giant hospital systems that could one day dominate American health care and drive up costs.

According to Douglas Chaet, Senior Vice President, Independence Blue Cross, incentives for providers in accountable care organizations (ACOs) should stem from wanting to get an edge on the competition.

Peter Cunningham, PhD, Senior Fellow and Director of Quantitative Research, Center for Studying Health System Change, says that the expansion of people gaining coverage will be a big challenge for primary care delivery systems.