Thirty-two health care providers in Colorado will divide a $32.3 million award from the state’s Primary Care Fund, the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing said Friday.

National homebuilder Taylor Morrison Inc. has merged its Bay Area and Sacramento divisions into a new Northern California division based in Sacramento, although the company will maintain a satellite office in the Bay Area., the company announced Friday.

The chief executive and president of Alliance Bank & Trust Co. of Gastonia has stepped down.

Cytokinetics Inc. started a third mid-stage clinical trial of a drug aimed at heart failure. (CYTK) (AMGN)

Denver Health on Saturday will mark the grand opening of its new emergency room for children.

A collection of executives from the region’s top hospitals will gather Tuesday in Kansas City, Kan., to officially mark a collaborative effort toward achieving National Cancer Institute designation.

The University at Buffalo School of Management said Friday that B. Thomas Golisano has been named the 2008 Niagara Frontier Executive of the Year.

Three Kentucky fire departments have received grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant program.

The University of Cincinnati is joining with the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University and the University of Pittsburgh to create medical devices that will adapt to a person’s anatomy and dissolve after healing takes place.

Cigna Healthcare, a subsidiary of Cigna Corp., announced this week that Tenet Healthcare Corp. has received 214 Cigna Healthcare quality designations based on the outcomes of 29 surgical procedures and medical conditions at 38 hospitals.

The N.C. Office of Emergency Medical Services has reinstated a level III trauma center designation for Carolinas Medical Center-NorthEast.

An internist and two cardiologists from The Western Pennsylvania Hospital have joined the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

A series of new partnerships are enabling Sheehan Health Network to expand services beyond its core business of detox and rehab.

Kaiser Permanente will donate $5 million to Grady Memorial Hospital.

Charles Webster quit as chief financial officer at Tessera Technologies Inc. in San Jose. (TSRA) (MSFT)

WellMed Medical Group is rebranding its RMG Health Centers division.

Caritas Christi Health Care has promoted two executives to its new management team.

Rex Hospitals has won approval to build an urgent care facility in Holly Springs, expanding its growing presence throughout Wake County.

Chamberlain College of Nursing appointed DeLois Weekes dean of its St. Louis campus.

Citing the rising costs of lumber, steel and fuel, AIDS Community Services has stopped plans for a three-story addition to its Buffalo facility.

The WHAS Crusade for Children has given $1.4 million to Kosair Children’s Hospital to be applied toward the upgrade of a pediatric cardiac catheterization lab and an $18.4 million expansion and renovation of the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit.

WellCare Health Plans Inc. said it would continue to participate in the Florida Medicaid reform program in Broward and Duval counties. (WCG)

For the second year in a row, Hispanic Business magazine has ranked University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas the nation’s top medical school for Hispanic students.

WellCare Heatlh Plans Inc. said it would continue to participate in the Florida Medicaid reform program in Broward and Duval counties. (WCG)

A Philadelphia hospital will become the 15th area medical center in the area to get out of the baby delivery business since 1997 because of escalating malpractice insurance costs and inadequate reimbursement rates for the service line. (CYH)

United Way of Central Carolinas Inc. has lost another key leader. Board Chairman Graham Denton resigned Wednesday amid ongoing fallout from the organization’s payments to its former president.

The New Mexico Department of Health said Wednesday that six hospitals in the state have volunteered to participate in its healthcare-associated infection pilot project.

Noland Health Services Inc. wants to spend a combined $7.5 million to add a total of 42 specialty care assisted living facility beds at its sites in Bessemer and St. Clair County, according to state filings.

Upper Valley Medical Center's chief executive officer will leave at the beginning of 2009 to pursue teaching and consulting work.

The University of Maryland Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center received a national designation Wednesday as a top center for cancer research.

The stock price for hospital operator Tenet Healthcare Corp. rose 7.4 percent on Wednesday after the release of a positive analyst report. (THC) (THC)

In a move that was expected, the Cleveland Indians this week notified the Buffalo Bisons they were terminating the baseball teams’ long-term Triple A affiliation agreement.

Registered nurses of the UW Medical Center are picketing at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, claiming contract negotiations with the school have stalled.

International Limousine Service Inc., a private limousine and minibus service, has named Kenneth Sparks to its board of directors.

US Oncology Inc. has added a new service division.

Employees and customers of Safeway Inc., the Pleasanton supermarket giant, raised $9.7 million for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The former administrator of an adult day health care center in Sacramento was sentenced Tuesday to five years probation for falsifying records to make patients appear sicker than they were so the center could collect government aid for their care.

The eight workers involved in a toxic chemical spill over the weekend at an East St. Louis packaging facility have been released from area hospitals, the plant’s parent company said.

WellCare Health Plans Inc. continued to round out its new management team, naming Rex Adams as chief operating officer, a newly created position. (WCG) (T)

George Hinton, a long-time Aurora Health Care administrator, was appointed chief administrative officer of Aurora Sinai Medical Center Tuesday, the city’s last remaining downtown hospital.

Health-care fraud may be one of the biggest factors driving up health-care costs, to the tune of billions of dollars, new research indicates.

Phil Mikulsky, an executive from the former WPS Resources Corp. of Green Bay, will assume additional duties with Integrys Energy Group Inc. following the retirement of Kathy Donofrio, president of Integrys Business Support, at the end of September. (TEG)

Health-care fraud may be one of the biggest factors driving up health-care costs, to the tune of billions of dollars, new research indicates.

The federal government has awarded a grant of nearly $706,000 to UNC Charlotte School of Nursing faculty members Lienne Edwards and Tama Morris.

Sen. Joe Biden will host a town hall meeting on women’s economic security and introduce the related policies of an Obama-Biden administration as he campaigns in Sarasota Wednesday.

Wheless Associates Executive Search has opened a Houston office.

Wesley Medical Center on Monday opened its renovated Neonatal Special Care Unit, the latest component of the hospital’s $43 million expansion plan that focuses on more private patient rooms throughout the hospital. The expansion plan started last year.

Health care fraud may be one of the biggest factors driving up health care costs, to the tune of billions of dollars, new research indicates.

Breast surgeons Laura Dunbar, Ben Furman and Laura Lawson have joined Saint Thomas Health Services and formed a new physician practice, Tennessee Breast Specialists.

Douglas Ries, the president of SSM Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center for a quarter century, said Tuesday he would take an executive position with the hospital’s parent network Oct. 6.

The National Cancer Institute awarded a team led by Dr. Gerold Bepler, program leader for thoracic oncology at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, a Specialized Programs of Research Excellence grant in lung cancer.

HealthSouth Corp. has finalized the purchase of a rehabilitation hospital in Texas, which it plans to close after consolidation with a nearby HealthSouth facility. (HLS)

The University of New Mexico Medical Group Inc. has signed a letter of intent to negotiate exclusively with Legacy Hospital Partners Inc. to build a new acute care teaching hospital in Sandoval County.

Health care fraud may be one of the biggest factors driving up health care costs, to the tune of billions of dollars, new research indicates.

JACKSONVILLE -- A unique collaboration between a hospice provider and a hospital in Jacksonville could foster improvements in emergency department use and lower health care costs.

Arizona's three state universities are facing $50 million in budget cuts, but it's too early to tell how their Phoenix operations will be impacted.

Arizona Physicians IPA has added St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center to its network to care for the state's sickest child­ren, but still is negotiating a contract with Phoenix Children's Hospital.

Well-known Phoenix nonprofit Make A Difference this week changed its name to HandsOn Greater Phoenix.

Palo Alto residents Elliott and Betty Bolter, ages 84 and 85, respectively, are two of the longest-living and longest-running patients served by what is known today as the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. They live near one of the foundation’s original clinics, on the corner of Homer Avenue and Bryant Street, which later became known as the Roth Building.

As Mercy Health Partners decides on a location for its new hospital, it faces a perception that, by closing two older hospitals, it’s about to abandon swaths of the West Side.

A 2-year-old federal exemption is boosting West Penn Allegheny Health System’s bottom line at a time when the region’s second-largest health care system struggles with revenue accounting problems.

Reymundo Espinoza has been chief executive officer for the past 20 years of two nonprofit corporations, Gardner Family Health Network and Gardner Family Care Corp. For more than 40 years, Gardner has been providing comprehensive primary health care and behavioral services for the low- to moderate-income, uninsured and homeless population in Santa Clara County.

Far Hills Surgical Center is consolidating its two area surgery centers into one location on the Centerville campus of Miami Valley Hospital South.

West Penn Allegheny Health System’s secretive approach to addressing its financial problems is an unfortunate move that is bad for investors, bad for the community and, ultimately, bad for the hospital system itself.

The feud between Gov. Martin O’Malley and former Gov. Robert Ehrlich continues to play out two years after the state’s latest gubernatorial election.

Using a Web site similar to eBay, Aurora Health Care has found a way to profit from getting rid of outdated medical equipment — and keep the devices from premature burial in landfills.

After a long delay — and some critical cost calculations — Via Christi Health System has broken ground on its westside hospital.

DURHAM – With older veterans requiring increased care and younger ones returning from two war zones, the primary care and mental health facilities at the Durham VA Medical Center will be renovated and expanded.

Companies that develop health care buildings rarely build on speculation -- instead they rely on various factors before starting construction.

Almost one year has passed since the Tennessee Health Services and Development Agency denied HCA's TriStar Division a certificate of need to build a $110 million, 56-bed hospital in Spring Hill.

Work has all but halted on a $62 million expansion of Marion General Hospital while city officials tweak a proposed hospital lease extension to gain court-ordered approval from county commissioners.

Two Central Ohio hospitals rated as worse than the national average for pneumonia deaths are challenging how the government calculates the rates, saying that in many cases they were legally prohibited from trying to revive the patients or they died of other causes.

Union leaders have long bemoaned the lack of rising leaders among their younger members.

Contract negotiations between union leaders and employers can be difficult. And once an agreement is reached, making changes can be next to impossible.

Chadds Ford lies far from the bustle of Philadelphia. Marc Altman, president of the Civic Association of Chadds Ford Township, estimates that a commute to Philadelphia is at least 25 minutes, but can be as long as an hour, depending on traffic.

The South Texas Medical Center is the hub of San Antonio’s multibillion-dollar health care industry.

Nearly a decade ago, Paul Ciminelli toured the towering 50 High Street Building. At the time, the building was showing its age.

The Blue Shield of California Foundation — the San Francisco-based health plan’s philanthropic arm — is making $7.7 million in third-quarter grants to 17 nonprofits, including 15 in California and two on the East Coast.

Angela Irvin and Natasha Thompson are among a growing number of advanced practice nurses helping to fill gaps in a health care system with physician shortages resulting from declines in reimbursements and the increased costs of operating medical practices.

In the world of fashion, as we all know, one size does not fit all. The same holds true in the world of medications. There are tablets, caplets, capsules, ointments and liquids to suit different needs.

More than a dozen medical practices affiliated with the University of Louisville have opened offices in the recently completed Health and Outpatient Center.

Kindred Healthcare Inc.’s Bashford East Health Care and Golden Living Center–Camelot, which is owned by Fort Smith, Ark.-based Golden Living Centers, each will be recognized with quality awards by The American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia topped the list of most trusted nonprofit organizations in a ranking by high-net-worth consumers.

A Bellaire company that reads radiology images at remote locations around-the-clock has signed two contracts with a nationwide network of health care organizations.

Plano-based Legacy Hospital Partners Inc. has only been in operation since mid-January, but over those seven months, it has inked plans to build hospitals nationwide — in Idaho, New Jersey and New Mexico.

The Massachusetts Nurses Association has been pushing for state-mandated nurse-staffing ratios since 1996.