With the implementation of a grant-funded program to reduce hospital readmissions for elderly patients with heart failure, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Medical Center was able to reduce rates of heart failure readmissions over a two-year period by 46 percent within 30 days of hospital discharge and by 35 percent within 90 days.

On the U.S. Department of Treasury's Go Direct campaign website is a countdown clock. It isn't counting down to the end of the Mayan calendar. And although some older adults may view the clock as ticking down to the end of the world as they know it, the Treasury Department and leaders of the long-term care industry say the deadline it's counting down to will begin a new era of increased efficiency and cost savings.

Chief financial officer John Cornell at Meadows Regional Medical Center, a 64-bed rural hospital in Vidalia, Ga., spoke recently with Healthcare Finance News Associate Editor Kelsey Brimmer regarding some of the most prominent financial issues that rural hospitals face in the future and have been facing in the last few years.

An interim final rule adopting electronic funds transfer (EFT) standards has been finalized announced the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week.

Med Data Inc., a provider of medical billing services has acquired revenue cycle management and personalized patient communications company MedDirect, Inc.