Unless vendors differentiate, market could shrink--analyst

Unless vendors become better at differentiating their systems from one another's and at proving that they benefit their clients, the total market for hospital information systems will remain static and could shrink during the next several years, a new analysis says. A recent survey of vendors shows them cutting their prices in 1990 to generate sales. To increase their sales, vendors have to get on the bandwagon of reducing healthcare costs, the analysis says.     

Unbundling could be costing you a bundle

Here's what you need to know about the mysterious world of code manipulation. Consultants and payers claim it's responsible for physician charges increasing at an alarming rate.     

Chief casualty could be the senior service

A more emotive word than 'private' would be difficult to find in the world of health care at the moment. As public spending contracts, private medicine, or at least talk of it, expands. Guardians of the NHS are rushing to the defence of their embattled institution. The Government-led 'private' army is mobilising. Trade unions have pitched into the battle and even the innocent populace is caught up in the cross-fire.