Posts tagged healthcare

Pittsburgh healthcare market making you dizzy yet? Highmark, West Penn Allegheny leaders meet to resurrect merger. The on-again, off-again merger talks are apparently on again between Highmark and West Penn Allegheny Health System, the two systems jointly announced.

An estimated 35.8 million U.S. adults with hypertension have uncontrolled blood pressure levels, even though the vast majority have regular access to healthcare and insurance coverage, the CDC reported Tuesday.

Look for our new Hospital Market Overview next week. Organic patient utilization and pricing trends have been mixed for the Fitch-rated group of U.S. for-profit hospital providers in recent periods, with urban providers experiencing stronger volume growth and weaker pricing trends than their rural and suburban counterparts.

An opportunity for hospitals to develop a strong brand in the face of shrinking reimbursements, rising operating costs and a rapidly changing healthcare culture and treatment system, as they need to rethink their delivery of superior and cost-effective care if they are to be successful in the future.

The newly formed Lahey Health System in Massachusetts puts fresh pressure on other community hospitals to line up partners and strengthen their own systems.

The smartphone application market for mobile healthcare increased seven-fold to reach $718 million in 2011, but is set to rise much more.

The iPad continues to make inroads in healthcare. The chief of the cardiology department at 400-bed Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Florida has developed software for controlling heart devices remotely using an iPad, The hospital’s executives say the technology could revolutionize the way physicians reprogram pacemakers.

 The supposedly hotly debated topic of stem cell research is actually supported by most Americans today. A new Harris Interactive/HealthDay poll shows 72 percent of adults surveyed saying they support the use of embryonic stem cells for disease prevention research.