Maryland lawmakers and CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, the state's leading health insurance provider, outlined a $1.6 billion proposal that would provide near-universal healthcare coverage for residents of the state, according to a report from the Baltimore Sun.

The Joint Commission has marked March 8-14 as National Patient Safety Awareness Week, according to a Joint Commission news release.

Maryland may license anesthesiologist assistants to provide care under the supervision of a licensed anesthesiologist, according to laws proposed in the state House and Senate.

Here is an analysis of the percentage of nonprofit hospitals' community benefit expenditures in four categories of community benefits, organized by hospital revenue, according to the IRS's Exempt Organizations Hospital Compliance Project Final Report.

The New York Times reports that insurers are paying the same amount for medical scans regardless if they are performed on brand new or out-of-date machines and are often paying for procedures that do not help in diagnosing a condition,…

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter announced new legislation that will provide healthcare to 100,000 uninsured Colorado citizens and families, according to a news release from his office.

Through market observation it can be seen that there is a strong reemergence of physician employment by hospitals and health systems. The strategic logic for this reemergence is similar to the past — i.e. gain market share through primary care…

Here are the top 10 diagnoses resulting in hospital stays by the uninsured in 2006, along with their percent of all uninsured hospital stays, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The number of hospital admissions for the uninsured increased by 34 percent from 1997-2006, according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

More than half (53 percent) of Americans skipped medical care in the past year due to cost, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation's first healthcare tracking poll of 2009.