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Sherman Hospital confirmed Monday that it has rejected an offer from nearby Centegra Health System to merge into the two-hospital system.
Sherman said executives from Centegra, which owns hospitals in Woodstock and McHenry, was interested in a deal. The talks ended last month, Sherman spokeswoman Christine Priester said. Centegra could not be reached for comment early Monday afternoon. Get the full story »
Chicago-based Ventas Inc. said Monday that it will buy Nationwide Health Properties Inc. in a $5.8 billion stock deal, creating the nation’s largest health care real-estate investment trust.
The Nationwide purchase solidifies Ventas’ position as an owner of senior housing communities. The combined company will have more than 1,300 assets in 47 states, the District of Columbia, and two Canadian provinces. Ventas also owns hospitals and medical office buildings. Get the full story »
Illinois’ largest health insurance company will pay $25 million to settle allegations that it denied coverage to sick children in need of nursing care by “fraudulently” shifting their claims to Illinois’ Medicaid program, state and federal prosecutors said this morning.
The settlement, reached by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, follows several years of complaints from patients and their families. The patients reached out to Madigan’s office after their claims were denied by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois.
The cost of the medical care, which included so-called private-duty nurses for sick children and other ill patients, should have been covered by Illinois Blue Cross, but instead was shifted to Medicaid at a cost of nearly $12 million, prosecutors said. The claims were denied based on “internal, undisclosed guidelines that were more restrictive than the language provided to patients in plan policy materials,” Madigan’s office said. Get the full story »
Humana Inc. said it will set up a joint venture to provide employers and health plan members with new wellness programs and services that reward workers for staying healthy.
Louisville-based Humana, one of the nation’s largest health insurance companies, said it will create a new company, based in Chicago, with Discovery Holdings of South Africa. Discovery owns the Vitality brand of wellness programs and services which work somewhat like airline miles in how they reward workers to stay healthy. Get the full story »
Americans are more optimistic about their ability to pay for health care services in the coming months, particularly for elective surgeries, according to a survey issued on Thursday. That attitude could translate into an improvement for health care providers and medical companies after U.S. consumers cut back on health services in recent years because of the recession. Get the full story »
The Illinois Department of Insurance is planning the fourth in a series of web-based seminars on health insurance exchanges.
The nation’s new health care law requires the exchanges to be running in states by 2014. Individuals and small businesses would be able to shop for health coverage through the exchange. Get the full story »
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first three-dimensional mammography system developed by Hologic Inc. to screen for breast cancer with hopes the device will prove better than current mammography technology.
The device, the Silenia Dimensions System, augments traditional two-dimensional images produced by a mammogram with a 3-D image to be used in breast cancer screening and diagnosis. The system would provide both types of images during a scan so doctors could compare images with previous ones from prior, conventional mammograms. Get the full story »
Two large Chicago-area hospital operators are exploring a merger in a deal that could create the largest Catholic-owned health care system in Illinois, sources told the Tribune.
Chicago-based Resurrection Health Care, which operates six hospitals in Chicago and the suburbs, has signed a letter of intent to “explore merger” with Mokena-based Provena Health, which owns six hospitals in the suburbs and downstate. Get the full story »
Newly trained female doctors in the United States make nearly $17,000 less than their male counterparts, even though women increasingly are choosing careers in higher-paying medical specialties, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
They said there has been a widening gender gap in starting salaries for female doctors, rising from a difference of $3,600 in 1999 to $16,819 in 2008. Get the full story »
Hundreds of employers have received federal waivers from a new requirement in the health-care overhaul law.
Government figures show that 733 applicants, mainly employers and union-affiliated insurers, received an exemption from a requirement that puts their plans on the hook for up to $750,000 in eligible medical bills for each covered worker this year. Most of those plans now have reimbursement limits that are a fraction of that amount. Get the full story »
Walgreens said it will allocate $100 million over the next four years to providing medical tests and preventive medical services as the Deerfield-based pharmacy giant continues to establish itself as a national provider of health care. Get the full story »
Reducing costly re-admissions to hospitals is the goal of a new initiative being rolled out this year by Illinois’ largest health insurer and the state’s hospital lobby.
By 2014, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and the Illinois Hospital Association say they hope to reduce re-admissions by 33 percent. In 2009 there were more than 50,000 re-admissions to the approximately 200 hospitals in the state. Get the full story »
Women who have breast implants may be at greater risk for a rare but serious cancer, U.S. health regulators warned Wednesday.
The Food and Drug Administration said it is looking at a possible link between silicone and saline breast implants and a type of anaplastic large cell lymphoma, which targets the immune system. The agency said overall it still believes implants are safe. Get the full story »
The federal government recovered a record total of more than $2.5 billion from health care fraud last year, according to a government report issued Monday.
Results reflect both the continuing array of efforts to swindle the government Medicare program and a stepped-up effort by law enforcement to combat them, officials said. Get the full story »
