Surprise billing compliance ‘very daunting,’ regulatory experts say

The bill is best known for its signature achievement, but there are lesser known requirements that are difficult to put into practice, experts told Healthcare Dive.

By Samantha Liss • April 7, 2022

Advocate Aurora investment arm acquires remote monitoring firm

This is the fourth transaction for the newly minted Advocate Aurora Enterprise, which launched last year with the aim of building a portfolio of companies beyond acute medical care.

By Samantha Liss • April 7, 2022

Explore the Trendline➔

Provider burnout

Hospitals are still struggling with provider burnout, after the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated underlying staffing issues and prompted workers to quit their jobs.

By Healthcare Dive staff

Intermountain, SCL Health complete merger, forming $12B system

Combined, the system will become one of the nation's largest nonprofit health operators with 33 hospitals and hundreds of clinics across seven states.

By Samantha Liss • April 6, 2022

Facing opposition, Mass General Brigham pulls back surgery center plans

Although the system has withdrawn a proposal for three suburban surgery centers, it did secure recommendations for conditional approval for two other large-scale projects.

By Samantha Liss • April 5, 2022

Surprisingly, physician burnout could contribute to slightly better outcomes, new study suggests

But this doesn't indicate that physician burnout is beneficial or should be tolerated, researchers said, stressing that the relationship between burnout and outcomes is complex and needs further investigation.

By Rebecca Pifer Parduhn • April 4, 2022

Ascension, AdventHealth make breakup official, renaming hospitals

The end of the joint venture formed in 2015 to run hospitals in the Chicago area will see 14 facilities operate under the Ascension name and four carry the AdventHealth banner.

By Susan Kelly • April 4, 2022

Connecting compliance and HR to tackle the nurse staffing crisis

The ongoing nurse staffing crisis is creating a multitude of complexities for hospitals and healthcare systems, especially verifying credentials.

April 4, 2022

Hospitals struggle to fill staffing holes in short, long term amid surge in nurse turnover

"This is a bigger workforce shortage than we have ever dealt with," said Gay Landstrom, senior vice president and chief nursing officer of Trinity Health, a nonprofit system with 88 hospitals nationwide.

By Hailey Mensik • March 31, 2022

Hospital lobby says merger guidelines don't need 'major revisions'

Antitrust regulators are angling to modernize the guidelines, which have not been updated in more than a decade, as the Biden administration increasingly cracks down on consolidation.

By Samantha Liss • March 31, 2022

Hospitals bet big on venture capital amid COVID-19 revenue flux

Hospitals are increasingly acting as venture capitalists, ratcheting up investments in companies with products they can use and scale, according to a data analysis of hospital VC arms conducted by Healthcare Dive.

By Rebecca Pifer Parduhn • March 30, 2022

Hospital E/M visit charges continued to rise in 2020, Fair Health finds

Meanwhile, the percentage of claims for telehealth shot up from just 0.22% of all claims in 2019 to about 15% in 2020, as COVID-19 restrictions set in and patients worried of virus transmission.

By Shannon Muchmore • March 30, 2022

Eyeing Europe's COVID-19 resurgence, AHA asks HHS to renew public health emergency

In a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra, hospitals emphasized the need to be prepared for more potential disruptions to the healthcare delivery system.

By Susan Kelly • March 29, 2022

Long-term health of patients, hospitals at stake as care delays continue

As federal relief funds dwindle and volumes remain stagnant, concerns are mounting about the stability of many providers' operations, especially those lacking robust outpatient services.

By Samantha Liss • March 29, 2022

Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic

Hospitals overhauled their operations in COVID-19's early days. Now, two years into the pandemic, they are looking ahead at the future of their business, including revenue diversification and workforce stability.

March 29, 2022

Hospitals saw negative operating margins in February for second consecutive month

Even as cases of the omicron variant plummet, the metrics indicate a "challenging recovery," according to Kaufman Hall's monthly report.

By Hailey Mensik • March 28, 2022

AHA wants healthcare workers protected like airline staff amid rising workplace violence

No federal laws protect healthcare workers from violence on the job like they do flight crews. AHA wants the DOJ to support legislation that would make violence against healthcare workers a federal offense.

By Hailey Mensik • March 25, 2022

Wisconsin passes law making threats against healthcare workers a felony

The state already has a law making it a felony to commit battery against nurses, emergency care providers or those working in an emergency department, but this expands that protection to threats.

By Hailey Mensik • March 24, 2022

Appeals court nixes Hackensack-Englewood hospital merger in New Jersey

The state's largest hospital system lost its challenge to merge with Englewood Hospital, a transaction the FTC sought to halt because of competition concerns.

By Samantha Liss • March 24, 2022

White House stops paying providers for COVID-19 testing, treatment of uninsured patients

The Biden administration said it will also stop reimbursing providers for vaccinating uninsured patients by April due to shrinking pandemic relief funds.

By Hailey Mensik • March 23, 2022

Labor union health fund targets hospital prices, looks to form purchasing coalition

If successful, the coalition would bring together New York City's largest public employee union and the United Federation of Teachers. Together the group would represent about 540,000 people.

By Samantha Liss • March 22, 2022

Advocate Aurora's 2021 income, revenue rebound as patients return

The boost in non-COVID-19 patient services helped the 26-hospital Midwestern system offset rising labor and supply costs.

By Susan Kelly • March 22, 2022

The Kronos outage disrupted one health system's payroll for more than a month. Here's how it moved forward.

UMass Memorial Health had to quickly improvise a way to run payroll for more than 16,000 employees without hours-worked data, CFO Sergio Melgar said.

By Ryan Golden • March 22, 2022

15K Minnesota nurses are bargaining for new contracts

Current shortages and widespread issues recruiting and retaining staff are a central concern for hospitals, and could lend nurses more leverage in negotiations.

By Hailey Mensik • March 21, 2022

Detroit rated as most racially segregated hospital market in US, report shows

St. Louis, Atlanta, Washington D.C. and Manhattan also landed on the Lown Institute's top-10 list of the most racially segregated hospital markets.

By Samantha Liss • March 21, 2022

Negative effects of rural hospital closings go beyond health, study finds

When a hospital closes in a rural community, the effects often ripple through the local economy, reducing the size of the population, labor force and possibly county income, new research suggests.

By Susan Kelly • March 21, 2022