Axios: Hospitals charge a lot more when Wall Street owns them
By Sam Baker August 26, 2020 Hospitals owned by private equity firms rake in almost 30% more income than hospitals that aren’t, according to new research published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine. Why it matters: Private equity is gobbling up more and more of the health care industry. Investors are buying up physicians’ practices, hospitals and the […]
JAMA: Changes in Hospital Income, Use, and Quality Associated With Private Equity Acquisition
By Joseph D. Bruch, Suhas Gondi, Zirui Song August 24, 2020 Private equity investment in health care has markedly increased in recent years. The total disclosed value of private equity deals in health care reached $78.9 billion in 2019, up from $23.1 billion in 2015. Private equity firms use capital from institutional investors and individuals […]
Axios Vitals: Hospitals still suing patients in coronavirus hotspots
By Caitlin Owens August 21, 2020 As millions of Americans lost their jobs and fell sick with the coronavirus this summer, hospitals in some of the hardest-hit states were getting back to the business of suing their patients. Why it matters: The Americans least likely to be able to pay their medical bills are the same […]
Fierce Healthcare: Larger hospital, physician systems didn’t lead to better quality, study found
By Robert King August 17, 2020 Large systems of hospitals and physician offices were generally not associated with better quality, a new study found. The study, published Friday in the journal Health Affairs, touches on the impact of increased consolidation among physician offices and hospitals that has occurred in recent years. Researchers measured how large, interconnected […]
ProPublica: How Rich Investors, Not Doctors, Profit From Marking Up ER Bills
By Isaac Arnsdorf June 12, 2020 In 2017, TeamHealth, the nation’s largest staffing firm for ER doctors, sued a small insurance company in Texas over a few million dollars of disputed bills. Over 2 1/2 years of litigation, the case has provided a rare look inside TeamHealth’s own operations at a time when the company, […]
AJC: Piedmont Healthcare pays $16 million to settle kickback complaint
By Ariel Hart June 25, 2020 Piedmont Healthcare has agreed to pay $16 million to settle a whistleblower lawsuit that claimed the system overbilled Medicare and Medicaid for cardiac care and illegally paid kickbacks to practitioners who referred heart patients to its hospitals, the Justice Department announced Thursday. To get higher payments from the federal […]
Wall Street Journal: The $1.9 Million Covid Patient
By Melanie Evans August 4, 2020 Josephine Mazzara watched her husband disappear into a Manhattan emergency room, unable to follow and uncertain when she would see him again. Once inside, doctors quickly diagnosed Salvatore Mazzara with Covid-19. Soon, the 48-year-old’s lungs, kidneys and heart would give out. Doctors tried experimental drugs and tested other therapies in an […]
New York Times: A Hospital Forgot to Bill Her Coronavirus Test. It Cost Her $1,980.
By Sarah Cliff August 3, 2020 When Debbie Krebs got the bill for a March emergency room visit, she immediately noticed something was missing: her coronavirus test. Ms. Krebs, a lawyer who focuses on insurance issues, had gone to the Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, N.J., with lung pain and a cough. A doctor ran tests […]
Kaiser Health News: Ever Heard of a Surgical Assistant? Meet a New Boost to Your Medical Bills
By Markian Hawryluk July 22, 2020 Izzy Benasso was playing a casual game of tennis with her father on a summer Saturday when she felt her knee pop. She had torn a meniscus, one of the friction-reducing pads in the knee, locking it in place at a 45-degree angle. Although she suspected she had torn […]
Healthcare Dive: Nonprofit health systems – despite huge cash reserves – get billions in CARES funding
By Samantha Liss June 23, 2020 The nation’s largest nonprofit health systems, led by Kaiser Permanente, Ascension and Providence, have received more than $7.1 billion in bailout funds from the federal government so far, as the novel coronavirus forced them to all but shutter their most profitable business lines. At the same time, some of […]