When Dallas-based Parkland Health & Hospital System announced last week that it would bump up its entry-level pay to $10.25 per hour using the first pool of funds earned by executives as part of a new pay for performance plan, it tapped into a much larger national debate about executive pay, minimum wage levels and income disparity.

The already rapidly changing ambulatory surgery center (ASC) market is getting hotter as Surgery Center Holdings Inc. (which does business as Surgery Partners) will acquire Symbion Holdings Corporation and create a company with roughly 100 healthcare facilities and complementary ancillary services in 27 states that combined treat more than half a million patients a year.

Four organizations are joining forces to launch the first ever diabetes registry that is aimed at tracking and improving the quality of diabetes and cardiometabolic care across the primary and specialty care continuum.

What makes the suit particularly notable is that it involves alleged upcoding of evaluation and management (E/M) claims, a practice that normally does not generate payment differences large enough to justify the time and effort of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) conducting audits on such claims.

PARSIPPANY, N.J.– Aetna (NYSE: AET) and LHS Health Network, an affiliate of Lourdes Health System, today announced a new accountable care organization (ACO) agreement that will improve the coordination and delivery of patient care. The LHS Health Network will deliver a better patient experience for more than 20,000 Aetna members in Camden, Burlington and Gloucester counties. In addition, Aetna and LHS Health Network will begin a new Medicare provider collaboration serving more than 2,000 Aetna Medicare members.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (June 16, 2014) – Cumberland Consulting Group, a national healthcare technology implementation and project management firm, today announced that it has acquired the assets of Seattle-based Cipe Consulting Group, LLC, a growing healthcare technology consulting firm specializing in electronic health records and revenue cycle system implementation and support, including workflow and business analytics.

OMAHA, Neb., June 16, 2014 -- West Corporation, a leading provider of technology-driven communication services, today announced it has completed the acquisition of Health Advocate(TM), Inc., the nation's leading independent provider of healthcare advocacy services.

While the complexity of medicine may never fully allow pure commodity economics in healthcare services, certain services, such as diagnostic imaging and laboratory tests, do lend themselves toward being shopped for as commodities. In theory, this should make such services more sensitive to price pressure. But that is not what San Francisco healthcare technology firm Castlight Health found when it examined four such services: low-back MRI, head CT, lipid panel and preventive primary care visit.