Medtronic hunts for acquisitions to boost sales (Morning Read)

Highlights of the important and interesting in the world of healthcare:

Medtronic to focus on “tuck-in” acquisitions. Fridley, Minnesota-based medical device company Medtronic Inc. — the world’s largest heart-device maker — will be “opportunistic” in seeking acquisitions of as much as $1 billion to restore sales growth, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bill Hawkins told Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Defensive medicine not trivial, but… A new Health Affairs analysis pegs medical malpractice costs at an average $55.6 billion annually, or 2.4 percent of annual healthcare spending, according to ModernHealthcare.com (registration required).

Heart bypass surgery centers earn stars. Mass General and the surgeons group at George Washington were among 50 heart bypass surgery centers that received three stars — the top rating — from the inaugural ranking of the centers by Consumer Reports, according to MedPage Today.

WellStar searches for new CEO. WellStar Health System in Atlanta, Georgia, is looking for new leadership after dismissing two top executives, including Gregory Simone, president and chief executive, a few days after agreeing to pay $2.7 million to settle allegations it improperly billed the state Medicaid system, according to the Atlanta Constitution.

That doesn’t add up. New Medicare chief Donald Berwick is using a new innovation center that has $10 billion to spend over the next decade to save $1.3 billion in healthcare costs, points out InsureBlog.

Social media: risks and opportunities. As social media make it easy for patients and physicians to connect outside the exam room, doctors face new questions about how to conduct themselves in these new spaces, reports American Medical News.