Healthcare finance news for hospital and health system leaders

As hospitals and health systems brace for mounting reimbursement pressures, rising costs and further industry consolidation, Phoenix-based Banner Health is pursuing a growth strategy built on diversification, financial discipline and a greater share of the healthcare dollar. For Staci Dickerson,…

Revised federal price transparency rules have made hospital price data clearer, but several issues still complicate price comparisons, according to an Oct. 7 analysis from the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker. The revisions to the 2021 hospital price transparency rule took…

St. Louis-based Ascension is continuing to scale back its health insurance business, shedding ownership stakes in health plans and redirecting capital toward its core strength: care delivery. The latest move is Ascension’s agreement to sell its ownership stake in Arizona…

A number of healthcare organizations have recently closed medical departments or ended services at facilities to shore up finances, focus on more in-demand services or address staffing shortages. Here are 66 department closures or services that are ending or have…

In early January, Tamar Goldblatt was named vice president of payer revenue strategy and contracting at St. Louis-based Ascension.  Since then, Ms. Goldblatt has worked closely with system and ministry leaders to understand the distinct needs of each market and…

CMS estimates that 77% of fiscal year 2025 Medicaid improper payments resulted from insufficient documentation rather than fraud or abuse, according to an Oct. 7 report from the Congressional Research Service. The report outlines how federal and state agencies oversee…

Payers will soon have to strip so-called “ghost rates” from their price files and have a senior executive attest that the data is accurate and complete, a requirement hospitals already face, under a final rule CMS and the Labor and…

Between 2010 and 2025, U.S. hospitals shut down at comparable rates whether they were in urban or rural areas, according to a research letter published Oct. 8 in JAMA Network. Researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health…

Meadowbrook, Pa.-based Redeemer Health has defaulted on a required bond payment, according to an Oct. 8 notice posted through the Electronic Municipal Market Access system.  The bonds are publicly traded, tax-exempt municipal bonds for which the system is obligated. The…

CMS will cut Medicare payments to 2,334 hospitals in fiscal 2027 for having more readmissions than expected, according to federal data released Oct. 7. The Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program scores hospitals on six conditions and procedures: heart attack, COPD, heart…