Health Beat: HHS says Medicare spent $473 billion less from 2009-2014 compared to previous years
by March 23, 2016 6:34 am 148 views
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MEDICARE SPENT $473 BILLION LESS FROM 2009-2014 COMPARED TO PREVIOUS YEARS
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said Tuesday (March 22) that Medicare spent $473.1 billion less on personal health care expenditures between 2009 and 2014 than would have been spent if the 2000-2008 average growth rate had continued through 2014. In addition, if trends continue through 2015, those savings could grow to a projected $648.6 billion.
The report updates a previously released analysis that also examined Medicare spending growth relative to national health care expenditures. According to the new data, national personal health care spending increased moderately in 2014, by 4.3% per person. To read the full report, click here.
REGIONALCARE HOSPITAL AND CAPELLA HEALTHCARE TO MERGE OPERATIONS
RegionalCare Hospital Partners Inc. and Capella Healthcare Inc., both privately-owned premiere providers of health care services, announced plans to merge the two companies. The new company will have 18 hospital campuses in 12 states with more than 13,000 employees, 2,000 affiliated physicians and $1.7 billion in revenues. The transaction, which is conditioned on customary regulatory reviews and approvals, is expected to close during the second quarter of 2016. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The combined company’s name will be RCCH Health Partners. Day-to-day operations at the companies’ affiliated hospitals will not be impacted by the parent-company-level transaction, officials said. Capella currently operates ten acute-care and specialty hospital facilities in Arkansas (Hot Springs and Russellville), Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina and Washington. RegionalCare owns and operates eight non-urban hospitals located in seven states: Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Montana, Ohio and Texas.
PFIZER JOINS GROWING PUBLIC-PRIVATE GROUP TO DECODE HUMAN IMMUNE SYSTEM
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. announced Tuesday (March 22) it will join the Human Vaccines Project (the Project), a public-private consortium focused on cross-sector collaboration to identify human immune responses associated with optimal vaccine protection.
The project, incubated initially at the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) has a growing list of partners and financial supporters including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, GSK, Sanofi Pasteur, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The project brings together leading academic research centers, industrial partners, nonprofits and governments to address the primary scientific barriers to developing new vaccines and immunotherapies, and has been endorsed by 35 of the world’s leading vaccine scientists.