Integration & Physician Issues

Physicians on staff can throw their hospital into the red or the black entirely by the way they handle clinical orders, physician preference items and other issues, says Nick Sears, MD, CMO of MedAssets in Alpharetta, Ga., which provides software…

Chris Rivard, health care services chair at Moss Adams, an accounting firm headquartered in Seattle, has a front-row seat to a practice-acquisition war heating up among hospitals in the Puget Sound area of Washington State. At least six practices in…

Medical practice managers struggle with the day-to-day challenges of rising operating costs, uncertainty about Medicare reimbursement rates and selecting and implementing an EHR, according to the third annual MGMA report "Medical Practice Today: What Members Have to Say."

Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon, Wash., acquired the Skagit Valley Medical Center, an 81-physician medical group, also in Mount Vernon, this week in a $17.4 million deal, according to a report by the Puget Sound Business Journal.

Physician-owned enterprises — such as ASCs, imaging centers and practices — are now losing ground to hospitals due to the financial crisis of the past two to three years, according to James Unland, president of the Chicago-based Health Capital Group…

Augusta Health, a 225-bed hospital in Fishersville, Virginia, will revoke the privileges of three University of Virginia cardiologists next week following the hospital's employment of cardiologists and plans for a $42 million cardiac and vascular facility, according to a report…

Employed physicians at New York City Health and Hospitals Corp.'s Coney Island Hospital voted to join Doctors Council SEIU, part of the Service Employees International Union, according to a SEIU news release.

A new set of proposed accreditation standards would further limit duty hours of residents working in teaching hospitals, according to a release by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.

A committee panel from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists released an opinion in a recent issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology supporting the continued development of obstetric-gynecologic hospitalists.

Practice management companies are increasingly acquiring independent physician groups, especially practices that specialize in inpatient specialties, such as maternal and fetal medicine and emergency medicine, according to a report by American Medical News.