Search

Save millions! Flex more muscle with insurers! Survive a harrowing market! Hospital mergers, like Godzilla's comeback flick, promise that bulk means marketplace brawn. For most of the decade, hospitals have [...]

Plans that allow patients to self-refer may turn out to be crowd pleasers--and loss leaders Imagine the family doctor as gatekeeper, sternly standing between patients and specialists. The managed care [...]

On Oct. 27, Oxford Health Plans' stock Nosedived 62 percent. Last year, stock at PacifiCare, Aetna, Cigna, MedPartners, PhyCor, and Columbia/HCA Healthcare also Took a beating. Once touted as the [...]

A faltering hospital. A low purchase offer. An alluring bonus. An executive caught in the middle. When does a golden parachute become a bribe? When do financial struggles cross the [...]

In the world of for-profit hospitals, Scott Gross lived the American dream, only to walk away. Unable to afford his real dream--medical school--Gross worked his way through college as a [...]

The million-dollar question in health care these days is how to raise the next buck. After all, it takes money to set profit-making strategies in motion, whether that's buying physician [...]

Thirty-two-year-old triathlete Suzann Mouw crosses the finish line of the Twin Cities Marathon, and can't hold back the tears. White streaks of dried perspiration encrust her brow, but her eyes [...]

ITS PLAN TO PARE DOWN HAS EXECUTIVES HAPPY AND FINANCES UP, BUT THE RECOVERY IS FAR FROM COMPLETE Ernie Meier goes back 20 years with Columbia/HCA chairman Thomas Frist Jr., [...]

Earl Bakken has always worked on the edge of things. In the 1950s he invented the first wearable pacemaker and cofounded Medtronic, a leading medical technology firm. But eventually Bakken [...]

Gary Allen sits atop a $72 million bounty that's caught in a war of philosophies; In one camp, healthy community advocates urge him to use the money to teach needy [...]

When the medical director at a large Chicago teaching hospital wound up the victim of errors by his own staff, executives didn't wait for the arrival of TV news crews [...]

Patients trust nurses--even more than doctors, recent surveys show--yet nurses have rarely hoped for more than a supporting role in patient care. But in a novel deal struck between a [...]

These intervals will help you get faster and more focused. Janet Baum had never really challenged herself in the pool before she joined a masters club in Dallas three years [...]

Women have different problems quitting smoking than men, so many programs geared to women have been designed. Weight gain, cited as a fear by many women, usually averages only five pounds and can be avoided. Support networks are good for coping with stress.

HEALTH CARE FEELS THE FALLOUT FROM WASHINGTON'S 1997 BALANCED BUDGET No one in health care liked the fragile balanced budget pact cobbled together by a warring Congress in 1997. After [...]

Health Maintenance Associates of Naples, FL, has maintained nearly 40 straight quarters of growth. Under its chief executive William Schoen, most of HMA's 12 urban and rural hospitals were sold with only the top two performers retained. Then Schoen began acquiring two to four small-town hospitals with only the barest in patient care and invested around $2 million annually into each facility. As a result, HMA's stock grew close to 50% higher than its competitors while trading at 33 times earnings. Its revenues have tripled since 1992 to almost $900 million while its earnings likewise grew to $108 million by almost the same rate.

A consortium of not-for-profits will pay Columbia/HCA Healthcare 10 times earnings for 22 hospitals--though the standard multiple is six or seven. In one case, the Nashville chain will reap nearly [...]

Talk about a black eye. Not only do lawmakers claim HCFA's computer system to streamline Medicare payments is a money pit, but some also say the botched effort could hamper [...]

Hiring an investment firm to review a company's 'strategic options' has become polite talk for jamming a for-sale sign into the front lawn. But an official at troubled Prudential HealthCare [...]

Parties to the deal had hoped to create a $1.3 billion powerhouse that still preserved a sense of local control. Their venture would have united seven hospitals in and around [...]

Health care insiders barely blink at news of yet another merger these days. But report that Tenet Healthcare Corp. was quietly working out a deal acquire beleaguered Columbia/HCA Healthcare stunned [...]

Most patients, especially those with cancer and other life-threatening ailments, consider choosing their doctors a right, not a privilege. Some HMOs finally are getting the message: In what may be [...]

HMOs warn that external reviews will bury them in costly coverage disputes. But it turns out that few people use the process when it's available--so few that consumer advocates want [...]

Mergers follow Anne DeFusco wherever she goes--four since she began her career in accounting. And having worked in corporate finance, consumer lending, and health insurance, she can testify that mergers [...]

When Tom McNulty met one of his heroes, management guru Tom Peters, he asked Peters to autograph a copy of Thriving on Chaos upside down on the back cover. "When [...]

Coram Healthcare gave pink slips to 2,000 employees three years ago in a painful downsizing that followed its disastrous purchase of Caremark's home infusion business. With the exodus went decades [...]

If managed care is getting you down, Dr. Sam feels your pain. He and his band of "preferred music providers" are wowing crowds with ditties like "You Picked a Fine [...]

For a look ahead, look around. The people and issues that made 1998 what it was--or wasn't--have already set the stage for 1999. Without any psychic assistance, you can bet [...]

Long considered a field for dogooders, health care is taking its lumps these days. As dwindling resources make decisions more complex and fraud allegations make headlines, legislators, regulators, and consumers [...]

What do you get when you arm a senior with the finer points of Medicare and Medicaid rules? A fraud buster--at least that's what the feds are betting on, to [...]

When OrNda HealthCorp bought Mercy & Baptist Medical Center in 1995, the CEO and trustees of the New Orleans hospital stepped up to run the $175 million foundation created by [...]