Online Business Blog

The Midlands are full of Christmas party options for your friends, family or colleagues, so make your 2010 party season something to remember and celebrate everyone’s favourite time of the year in style.

If you are looking for a Christmas party in Coventry , or a Christmas party night in Nottingham then you are in luck as these cities are bursting with fantastic party venues boasting a wide range of entertainment .

Midland folk are famed for their love of a good party, so local Christmas party venues pull out all of the stops to present a memorable party package which aims to go a notch above the offering from the previous year. M Read Full Post…

Can you separate fact from fiction when it comes to debating hospital costs in today’s market? With construction pricing at a level not seen in years, hospitals are considering implementing capital projects before costs begin to rise. Even in the current economic environment, many are taking advantage of alternative financing to execute a much-needed project in order to be more competitively aggressive once the market turns.

As hospital executives consider capital projects, there is a cacophony of voices citing various data about project costs. W

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Susan Turley is CFO of Doctors Hospital at Renaissance, McAllen, Texas.

Doctors Hospital at Renaissance (DHR) is a 503-bed general acute care hospital and one of the largest physician-owned facilities in the United States. DHR was ranked among the top 20 large hospitals in the U.S., the category for general acute care hospitals with over 250 beds.

DHR was recently named one of the Thomson Reuters Top 100 U.S. hospitals. What are some factors that contribute to excellence?
I believe that a three-pronged approach has made us successful. The first is putting the patient at the forefront in terms of how you manage the organization.

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Mike Burke is the chief financial officer at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. He sat down with editor Richard Pizzi to discuss how the finance team at the medical center dealt with the recession.

What’s been the biggest financial impact of the recession on NYU Langone Medical Center?
The biggest impact on NYU has been the impact of the recession on state government. The cut in the tax revenue stream in the state has led to a cut in Medicaid payments. Another big impact was the liquidity crisis in the stock market and the impact that had on financial returns. Like a lot of people, we took a hit on our investments.

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Tom Galarowicz is Director of Revenue Management at ThedaCare, a four-hospital community health system based in Appleton, Wis., employing almost 5,300 people.


The revenue cycle team at ThedaCare has used Lean management techniques for the past seven years, and Galarowicz spoke recently with editor Richard Pizzi to discuss how Lean can work in healthcare.

How is the revenue cycle team organized at ThedaCare?
Our business office is still decentralized. We have four hospitals – two larger hospitals and two critical access hospitals. We also have approximately 21 primary care clinics of various sizes, with 150 primary care providers who are ThedaCare employees. One

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As the Medicare Recovery Audit Contracting program begins in earnest, it has healthcare providers anxiously wondering:

• Will financial incentives for contractors result in overzealous audits?
• What will auditors be looking for?
• How much could providers be required to repay?
• What can organizations do to prove the claims they filed were fair and accurate?

Developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services as a way to ensure proper payments for Medicare services, the RAC initiative utilizes contractors to audit provider claims for validity.

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NEW YORK – The new healthcare reform law will make many healthcare organizations’ current business practices and markets irrelevant, according to a new report. The best method of survival may mean working with “unlikely new allies.”

According to PwC’s report, “Health Reform: Prospering in a post-reform world,” published Wednesday, the primary changes from healthcare reform will involve new types of coverage, new fund flows and new regulators. <

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