Leadership & Management

Mercy Health System, based in Conshohocken, Pa., has agreed to pay Medicare $7.9 million for overbilling the healthcare program, according to a report by The Times Herald.

The advisory board of Suburban General Hospital in Bellevue, Pa., is suing West Penn Allegheny Health System over the health system's plan to end emergency and inpatient services at the 59-bed hospital, according to a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette report.

The Labor Department in Washington, D.C., has increased its staff of wage-and-hour investigators by one-third, totaling 250 new employees, in order to investigate pay practices throughout the healthcare industry, according to a New York Times report.

The University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix and Phoenix Children's Hospital have agreed to expand their affiliation, a move designed in part to address Arizona's severe shortage of pediatricians, according to a release from the two groups.

Jacksonville, Fla.-based Baptist Health's five hospitals will stop accepting Humana Medicare HMO enrollees beginning Jan. 1, 2011, according to a St. Augustine Record report.

A report following a six-month investigation by a Miami-Dade County (Fla.) grand jury calls Jackson Health System a "colossal mess" and urges the public hospital to explore a new governing system, according to a Miami Herald report.

Gilbert (Arizona) Hospital has begun construction on a second facility in Florence, Ariz., according to an Arizona Republic report.

With consumer healthcare fraud occurring at increasingly high rates, the federal government has responded by enacting regulations to reduce such fraud. One regulation with this aim is the Red Flags Rules, an initiative set to go into effect on Dec.…

The Boards of Trustees for Medicare and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have released the yearly reports to Congress on the financial operations and actuarial status of Medicare, according to a news release by CMS.

The Greenville (S.C.) Hospital System will pay at least $35 million over the next decade to help the University of South Carolina expand its Greenville medical school, according to a report by The State.