Integration & Physician Issues

Providence Health Care — a member of Renton, Wash.-based Providence Health & Services — and Seattle-based health system Group Health Cooperative have signed an agreement to form a jointly owned comprehensive physician organization, according to a news release.  

A Pennsylvania senator has accused Pittsburgh-based health insurer Highmark of incentivizing Excela Health physicians to lure their patients away from community hospitals and to West Penn Allegheny Health System facilities, according to a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review report.

Forty-nine percent of healthcare finance executives polled in a recent Firstsource Solutions USA survey said developing accountable-care partnerships should be the top priority for the healthcare finance industry in the remainder of 2012.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced it will fund up to three case studies of accountable care organizations in the private market, totaling $1.2 million of research funding.

Twenty-six percent of primary care physicians report poor financial health, according to a recent QuantiaMD survey.

Don't look now, but the face of healthcare in the United States is about to change. The results will be better care, better patient outcomes, lower costs (or slowing of cost increases) and more financially sound providers. It would appear…

St. Louis Park, Minn.-based Park Nicollet Health Services is teaming up with non-profit payor Medica to establish an accountable care organization option for people who receive insurance coverage from employers purchasing Medica health plans, according to a news release.

Logansport (Ind.) Memorial Hospital has acquired Logansport Surgical Associates, according to a Pharos-Tribune report.

Residents transitioning into medical practice are looking for perks to help them financially in the first few years after medical school, according to a Utica Observer-Dispatch report.

A new heat map shows the variance in size of the newest accountable care organizations participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program, specifically how many physicians participate in each ACO.