Hospitals are just emerging from several years of post-pandemic planning and correction, when sustainability was the overriding issue. Now consolidation has driven up costs—largely by improving health systems’ negotiating power. Indeed, most studies show that after mergers, whether vertical, horizontal, regional, or national, the costs are higher. New federal budget proposals on the table are […]
How Safe is Medicare? What To Know About White House Budget Proposals
Health care providers may be lulled into believing that Medicare budget cuts proposed by the White House last week won’t happen. Media reports have repeatedly emphasized that the budget is simply a policy proposal. Congress alone has the authority to determine spending limits and allocate funds. But labeling this budget—and the Medicare proposals in it—as […]
Can Academic Medical Centers Be a Force for Health Care Reform?
Can Academic Medical Centers (AMCs) survive Value-Based Health Care and its metamorphosis to financial risk? That’s the question many industry watchers have been asking for several years, as margins have slimmed and some university-based programs have sold off their facilities and physician groups to private interests. But a number of economic and policy impacts are […]