Inside these posts: Illinois Hospital Association

Visit our Filed page for categories. To browse by specific topic, see our Inside page. For a list of companies covered on this site, visit our Companies page.

 

Illinois Blue Cross, hospitals target re-admissions

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 »

Study: Malpractice liability costs $55B a year

A new study showing the cost of malpractice at more than $55 billion a year to the U.S. health care system has Illinois medical-care providers once again calling for tort reform.

A comprehensive analysis by researchers at Harvard University figures the annual overall cost of medical liability to be $55.6 billion, or 2.4 percent of total health care spending, according to an article published in the September issue of the journal Health Affairs. Get the full story »

Illinois hospitals install first D.C. lobbyist

The Illinois Hospital Association today named long-time Democratic congressional aide Kimberly C. Parker as its first vice president of federal relations, opening the powerful state lobby’s first-ever office in Washington, D.C.

As health reform is implemented during the next four years, IHA said it wanted a stronger presence in Washington. Hospitals in Illinois are particularly concerned about rates they are paid by the Medicaid health insurance program for the poor, which is funded partly from federal dollars but also from state coffers that are bleeding red ink. Get the full story »