According to the children’s defense fund, every 21 seconds a child is born to an unwed mother; every 33 seconds a child is born to poverty; and every minute a child is born to a teen mother. Oh, and every 39 seconds a child is born without health insurance. Why should New Year’s Day be any different?

It becomes apparently depressing attending these ACHE regional meetings listening to a bunch of highly education middle age MHAs crying over spilled milk that they have been passed over more times than statistically possible for CXO positions in their own communities. Hired guns from out-of-state always seem get the jobs because the healthcare CXO market is so opportunity narrow with a choice of MBA vs. MHA from around the country. Look at the resumes of a typical MHA and see how he/she has to travel around the country every 2 – 3 years for a bigger and better position.

It was a slow week in HIT!

I know that this has been a real pet peeve of Grasserly in Congress and that the IRS sent out questionnaires last year to over 500 NPF hospitals to inquire about several important issues (e.g., community benefit, executive compensation) the IRS has used in the ruling guidelines to specify what is/what isn’t a NPF hospital.

Also very interested in see if the FTC (which basically was a neutered and inept agency under the Bush administration the last 8 years) gets some real teeth and starts to really challenge certain mergers again including healthcare providers just like they did in the late 1990s. The Boston Globe article does a good job of how Harshberger (who was the MA State Attorney general at the time of the merger to form Partners) basically gave it a wink-and-a nod along with Weld.

http://www.newsobserver.com/news/durham/story/1352343.html