McDonald’s Corp. may cut health insurance for nearly 30,000 hourly workers in the U.S. unless federal regulators waive a requirement of the new health care law.
Since HITECH was signed into law, perhaps the best example of how it’s actually worked for the better may be in Connecticut where it ultimately may help that state better comply with HIPAA
A push by Republicans to scuttle the U.S. health overhaul by denying funding through the House’s constitutional control over appropriations is gaining momentum.
Medical Necessity RAC Strategies
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is awarding $320 million, including $167.3 million which will expand primary care residency programs. These activities are expected to result in a 10-25% increase in the primary care health workforce over a 10-year-period
Beginning in 2011, insurers who fail to meet the MLR targets must rebate to enrollees the difference between their actual expenditures and the target amount.
Although this push by insurers on quality implies that consumers will get better care, it could leave patients with fewer choices of medical care providers, depending on which health plans they purchase.
The administration has finished awarding $677 million to create something like a nationwide help desk for the exchange of electronic health records
Telehealth Solutions’ CardioPod is playing a crucial role in a socially inclusive health check scheme
Biologic drugs can cost as much as $1.5 million annually and their success can be dramatic, sending diseases into remission that just years ago were terminal – but are also extremely difficult for patients and payers to afford
Companies that operate insurance shopping services, led by EHealth Inc., are creating a new market from a provision in the U.S. health overhaul that requires each state to create an online exchange where consumers can compare and buy coverage.
“We’re still not using the ‘C’ word, ‘cure,’” cautioned personalized medicine director Jeff Boyd of Fox Chase Cancer Center, but “there is real potential to transform many cancers into chronic diseases.”
Public comments can be made until Oct. 4 on the draft prepared by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) on medical loss ratios (MLRs).
The Department of Justice launched an investigation of home health-care company Amedisys Inc., the third government agency to probe the company since May
Dr. Richard Gilfillan, the new acting director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, has quite a juggling act to perform
The House this week is scheduled to take up legislation to prevent paid medical debts from affecting consumers’ credit scores
There must be an effort to ensure the clinical information that physicians’ document also drive the best financial results
Sen. Charles Grassley said Monday that he wants proof that the purchasing intermediaries that buy medical products for hospitals actually save the government money
Text Messages May Be Way to Improve Eczema Management
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday issued a new rule aimed at boosting the quality of safety information it receives on investigational drugs and medical products during clinical trials.
Stock Prices Of Home Health Companies Fall After DOJ Requests Medicare Documents
The American College of Physicians has offered ethical guidelines for using incentives to promote personal responsibility for health
Four lawmakers say the steep cuts to Medicare Advantage under the new reform law will cause many plans to fold, while many others will be forced to drop benefits to remain profitable.
Higher medical claims, an aging workforce and reverberations from a new health care law will lead to an expected 9 percent health care cost increase for Dallas employers next year, according to a study released Monday
The GAO announced the appointment of 19 members to the board of governors for the new Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute designed to review relevant evidence on health condition prevention, diagnosis and treatment
As providers heatedly debate whether providing intense patient “support” saves healthcare dollars, a study of 174,120 patients concludes that it does—by about $6 per person per month
CDC: From January through March 2010, 46.7 million persons of all ages (15.4%) were uninsured
Women pay more than men for haircuts and dry cleaning. Now, a new study has found that they also pay more for being obese.
Health IT systems are critical to the success of patient-centered medical home models for health care, a new study finds.
A new Internet-based tool can more accurately predict stroke patients’ risk of dying in the hospital and help their doctors develop better care plans, according to a new Canadian study
Massachusetts is developing a specific plan for switching to a new cost-conscious payment system – the system, called global payments, would require doctors, hospitals, and other providers to band together into group ACO’s
Employees will have to pay more than 12 percent more out of their pockets, according to Hewitt Associates. The Hewitt report blames higher medical claim costs, an aging population and U.S. healthcare reform.
The Health Insurance Exchange – if an insurer wants entrée to the pool of subsidized individuals and businesses with fewer than 50 employees—and of course all of them do—they’ll have to genuflect to whatever dictates this board happens to decree.
Study: Computerized Order Entry System Has Unintended Consequences
REACH Call Inc., a leading provider of telemedicine solutions, announced it has completed a $5 million round of Series A financing.
Conifer Health Solutions, a leader in business process solutions for healthcare providers, has acquired MediHealth Outsourcing, LLC. MediHealth is a Clinical Revenue Cycle consulting and outsourcing company
Experts say hospital consolidation will lead to higher health-care prices – size is power, and commanding market share can give hospitals an edge in negotiations with insurers.
Many new drug treatments cost nearly $100,000 a year are sparking fresh debate about how much a few months more of life is worth.
The law does not prevent insurers from charging more to cover highly expensive chronic conditions until 2014. Some carriers have responded to the provision by ending the sale of child-only policies.
What is coming in terms of reimbursement, patient demand, and endless other concerns make decisions that are long term in nature, expensive to implement a calculated gamble for health care CEOs
Two of Minnesota’s biggest health plans have temporarily suspended sales of individual health insurance policies – they are awaiting guidance on new rules, including those around coverage of kids with pre-existing conditions.
The FCC has unanimously endorsed a proposal to free up for unlicensed use the so-called TV white spaces which could improve the availability of new technologies such as “super Wi-Fi” for rural healthcare providers.
New computer-based products can help you along the road to fitness, offering steady electronic encouragement and suggestions.
Government Health IT reports that CMS will make “minor revisions” to the regulations, which were released in July.
The hospital consolidation wave – particularly in the mid-Atlantic region – is leading to fewer independent hospitals and doctors, a trend that many industry executives say will grow because of the health-care overhaul.
Virtual Radiologic and NightHawk Radiology Announce Merger
A set of new consumer protections goes into effect Sept. 23, the six-month anniversary of the law. Here’s a guide to some of the changes – and some of the caveats.
An annual report from vendor research firm KLAS Enterprises found that Epic and Cerner dominated the market for hospital clinical information systems during 2009.
The pilot sought to “improve the efficiency of the hospital workflow,” while reducing hospital mortality and keeping down costs
The benefits of increased healthcare transparency hinge on reliable and valid information—specifically in the areas of price and clinical performance
The Perennial Quest to Lower Health Care Spending
One of the most critical aspects of health overhaul for insurers is shaping up as a mixed bag for the industry, as regulators issued draft rules Thursday on how the companies must account for how much they spend directly on patients’ medical care.
The New England Journal of Medicine study claims there is a better way to engage patients that almost achieves lower health care costs – systematic telephone outreach to patients at high risk of serious health problems by trained nurses
The failure by state regulators to decide how much insurers must spend on patient care is scaring investors from health-plan stocks and complicating company decisions on premiums, commissions and cost cutting.
The national health IT coordinator sent a strong signal to healthcare providers and vendors to expect that more complex requirements for health information exchange and clinical decision support tools will be among forthcoming requirements for the next stage of meaningful use.
State insurance regulators told the White House on Wednesday that health insurancePresident Obama gave insurers a temporary dispensation from one major provision of the new health care law
Offering telephone health coaching to a broader-than-usual swath of patients may save money, according to a study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Virtually all Member States of the European Union have either already begun or will begin shortly to undertake the implementation of national systems making basic patient data available to all healthcare professionals whenever and wherever needed.
“We will never control the cost of healthcare,” Coburn said, “until we have a reconnection of the discriminating consumer.”
New health insurance policies must cover – without charge – preventive care that’s backed up by the best scientific evidence and recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
Those surveyed had one big number on their minds: 32 million. That’s the number of people expected to be newly insured as a result of Medicaid expansion and federally subsidized insurance coverage through soon-to-be-mandated health exchanges
The first big wave of new rules under the federal health care law goes into effect on Thursday, leaving many insurers scrambling to get ahead of the changes.
Giving patients meaning use: healthcare providers who want to cash in on the government’s HITECH “meaningful use” financial incentive programs must provide patients with electronic copies of their information upon request within 3 days
Open vs. Proprietary: Medsphere deployed its system at a 1,200-bed facility for $9 million, a fraction of the $90 million total incurred by a similar facility of the same size that adopted Epic’s proprietary system.
AETNA contracts with LifeWatch nationally for Nite-Watch Home Sleep Testing
5 ways to avoid computerized provider order entry (CPOE) pitfalls
UnitedHealth Group Inc. said it will buy A-Life Medical Inc., a closely held maker of medical- coding software, in its fourth purchase this year of a company focused on helping doctors and hospitals reduce costs.
Experts are starting to wonder if states with depleted budgets – such as California, Oklahoma and Virginia – can keep up with the conveyer belt of grant opportunities and account for millions of dollars once the money is awarded.
The average monthly premium in so-called Medicare Advantage plans will dip to $35.69 in 2011, a 45-cent reduction from $36.14 this year, Medicare officials said.
The Obama administration said Tuesday it denied rate increases and benefit cuts sought by some privately run Medicare plans
More than 2.2 million Pennsylvanians are eligible for Medicaid, it is the highest number on record, representing nearly 18 percent of the population — more than one in six
The heat is being turned up on Medicare and Medicaid fraud this week with the release of new federal rules designed to detect fraud earlier
Some of the country’s most prominent health insurance companies have decided to stop offering new child-only plans
Would doctors’ offices and hospitals work better if they functioned like the airline industry?
IHS Inc., a leading global source of critical information and insight, today announced the acquisition of two leading environmental health and safety information companies, Atrion International Inc., and Syntex Management Systems Inc., for a combined purchase price of approximately $80 million.
MedExpress Urgent Care, a national leader in delivering fast, affordable, high-quality care to those seeking non-emergency medical treatment, welcomed an investment from global growth equity firms General Atlantic LLC and Sequoia Capital
Significant questions have been raised about whether genetic tests are being offered to the women who can most benefit – consistent with the evidence-based guidelines for this testing
Proposed regulations being unveiled today seek to crack down on Medicare and Medicaid fraud by subjecting operators of certain medical firms to fingerprinting and stopping payments when credible fraud allegations are made
Medicare ‘doughnut hole’ relief could be offset by higher prescription drug prices
The number of primary-care physicians who offer same-day “open access” scheduling has grown to 62 percent, according to the American Academy of Family Practitioners, a substantial increase over the 29 percent who offered it in 2008
Like other watchdog regulatory agencies, the FDA operates with fees collected from the very companies it is mandated to scrutinize. It’s the old adage of the fox guarding the hen house.
Republicans are serious. Hopeful of picking up substantial numbers of seats in the Congressional elections, they are developing plans to try to repeal or roll back new health care law.
Health care reform is an automatic anti-recession measure, because, during downturns, government ends up enrolling more people in Medicaid and providing more people with subsidies to pay for private insurance. Those are two effective forms of stimulus.
Being dramatically overweight isn’t just unhealthy and socially inhibiting: It’s expensive – a study coming estimates the overall cost of obesity at $8,365 a year for obese women and $6,518 a year for obese men
Medical evidence drives coverage decisions and data about what works for obesity is definitely an evolving area
Promotion of the less accurate method of calculating heart attack risk expanded the market share of patients who are eligible for cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.
Users of Google’s online health data service want more than a place to stash their health data – they want tools to help them take steps to improve their health
The worldwide costs of dementia will reach $604 billion in 2010, more than one percent of global GDP output, and those costs will soar as the number of sufferers triples by 2050
Covisint, a Compuware company, today announced that it has acquired DocSite, an award-winning clinical decision support and quality performance management company
Many reformers undoubtedly believe that passage of the health overhaul law laid the issue to rest. But policy’s wheels continue to turn, and the process is anything but over.
The swelling ranks of Americans 65 and older — a figure expected to more than double to 89 million by 2050 — have inspired communities and companies to find innovative ways to help older Americans
Federal financial incentives designed to spur health care organizations toward meeting meaningful use standards for electronic health records are living up to their name.
IS your social network making you fat? Are your friends and family influencing you to smoke and drink more, or to sleep less? Can social networks be harnessed to improve it? These are seminal questions in “network science”
Annual performance-based incentive plans are growing for physicians. The survey found that 92% of offer incentive plans to their physicians, up from 75% in 2009.
The confusion is expected to get worse next year, with the first wave of baby boomers turning 65 and with changes in Medicare under the new health-care law
Workers are getting a new long-term-care insurance option. But with many details yet to be worked out, it may be too soon to tell how much impact it will have.
Republicans are promising to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul if they win control of Congress. But with what?
Federal health experts rejected a highly anticipated weight loss pill Thursday that was thought to offer a safer way to shed pounds than older medications linked to dangerous side effects
Generic medications saved the government and Medicare prescription drug plan beneficiaries about $33 billion in 2007, according to a Congressional Budget Office report
A health insurance premium tax credit that is part of the ACA could assist more than 28.6 million Americans in purchasing healthcare coverage—the value of the tax credits is expected to be about $110.1 billion during the first year.
Defending the legality of the national health-care overhaul against an onslaught of angry naysayers.
Rural hospitals struggling to install electronic health records received a shot in the arm this month — an infusion of $19.8 million in federal funding from the Health and Human Services Department.
The Census Department headline finding is that the proportion of people without health insurance in the U.S. rose to 16.7% last year from 15.4% in 2008.
Earlier this week WSJ profiled several new venture capital firms that have popped up since the start of 2009 in the face of a shrinking industry – here are six more new firms looking to make a mark
While improving care delivered by primary care clinicians holds promise for a patient’s wellbeing, the “value of primary care can be eroded by episodic delivery that is uncoordinated with specialists and hospitals,” the study says
The federal district judge overseeing a multi-state challenge to the healthcare reform law has unveiled a detailed schedule for the suit’s next steps.
Hospitals Caught Between a Rock and A Hard Place Over ’Observation’
The Senate failed Tuesday to repeal or ease an arcane tax reporting provision of the new health care law, leaving millions of businesses in the lurch for now.
A Florida judge said on Tuesday he would hear arguments on December 16 on a lawsuit by 20 U.S. states seeking to block President Barack Obama’s overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system.
GOP ‘Repeal And Replace’ Strategy Lacks Merit
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois and medical device maker CareFusion have formed the 23-hospital Illinois Hospital Quality Initiative (IHQI)
For the millions of adults who don’t regularly take their medicine as prescribed by their doctors, insurers and others in the healthcare industry are trying to figure out what incentives may improve medication adherence
The world’s largest medical device maker has been on an acquisition tear of late, using its considerable cash hoard to buy nine companies since 2009
FDA is proposing more than 70 changes, some of which could fundamentally alter basic definitions and submission requirements of the 510(k) process which could disrupt the program and delay patient access to needed medical innovations.
If you plan to sign up for a Medicare Advantage plan in retirement, the state you retire in could make a big difference in the quality of services you receive
MedAssets, a hospital software company, said Tuesday that it would pay $850 million in cash to acquire the Broadlane Group, a cost-management company from the private equity firm TowerBrook Capital Partners
The types of physician characteristics that are widely available through public profiles don’t predict which physicians will deliver high quality, evidenced-based care
A new study published in Health Affairs showed that medical malpractice suits led physicians to so-called defensive medicine to avoid later claims that they missed a diagnosis through poor performance.
A legal challenge to the health- care overhaul signed by President Barack Obama probably will be allowed to proceed, said a federal judge in Florida.
During the past two decades, the adult population in the US has become not only far more heavy but far more expensive when it comes to providing healthcare coverage, according to a new CBO issue brief
The costs that dictate employer-provided health insurance plans will climb more than 10 percent within the next 12 months according to an Aon Consulting report.
Some 1,655 critical access and rural hospitals in 41 states, and the nationwide Indian Country will share $19.8 million in federal funds to help facilities convert from paper to electronic health record technology.
The National Institutes of Health has awarded more than $250 million in dietary supplement research grants delving into botanicals – they say there is enough evidence of potential health benefits to warrant further study.
An effort to repeal a tax provision of the new health-care overhaul law that has angered small businesses would also divert billions of dollars from prevention and other programs.
Hospitalists are among the fastest growing specialties, and a growing number of them are directly employed by hospitals.
The venture capital industry is widely expected to contract over the next few years, as limited partners grow increasingly impatient with under-performing firms
In a sternly worded message to health insurers, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said last week that the federal government will not “stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes on the new healthcare reform legislation.
The nation’s health system can’t be transformed by rationing medical care, President Barack Obama’s new Medicare chief said Monday in his first major speech.
Telehealth deployments across the UK have shown that daily health monitoring helps patients to understand their condition, reduce anxiety, and ultimately prevent unnecessary hospital admissions
Cigna Corp. is expanding overseas, leading a push by health insurers to find growth amid uncertainties at home.
Key Health Law Provisions Begin Sept. 23
Two new devices—one that deflates fat cells, one that destroys them—have just been cleared for “body contouring” in doctors’ offices by the FDA
The head of the nonpartisan economic unit at Medicare that produced the original cost report says the White House number “does not provide a meaningful or accurate indication” of the effect of the health care law.
Obama on Health Care Reform: Predictions vs. Reality
The “2010 Health Information Technology Survey: How Technology Is Changing the Practice of Case Management” found that health information technology systems are changing medical management interventions less quickly than anticipated.
A new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers, “Healthcare Unwired,” finds significant support for the new technologies among health care providers.
Medicare considers observation services outpatient care, which requires beneficiaries to cover a bigger share of drug costs and other expenses than they would when receiving inpatient care.
The lawsuit argues that Congress doesn’t have the Constitutional authority to require people to buy health insurance or face a fine, a key tenet of the legislation.
Many Democrats have joined Republicans in pushing for the repeal of a tax provision in the new health care law that imposes a huge information-reporting burden on small businesses
the F.C.C. is likely to approve what could be an even bigger expansion of the unlicensed airwaves, opening the door to supercharged Wi-Fi networks that will do away with the need to find a wireless hot spot
Laborator Corp. of America Holdings has agreed to buy the genetic-testing business of Genzyme Corp. for $925 million as the medical-testing giant looks to expand into areas such as reproductive and oncology.
Access to adequate health care is a pressing problem for rural area hospitals, where specialists are rare – one hospital is addressing this issue by debuting its eICU program
An appeals court Thursday allowed the federal government to resume funding human embryonic stem cell research
A recent report in Health Affairs is a reminder how physicians say the threat of malpractice lawsuits forces them to practice defensive medicine - what is surprising is that it appears to make not much difference in states where there is tort reform
California Medical Assn. officials announced Thursday that they had sued Blue Shield of California alleging that the health insurer’s new online doctor rating system is inaccurate and misleads consumers.
Many independent community hospitals nationwide that are not part of a health system or owned by a chain are facing significant financial troubles
The U.S. health overhaul that Democrats said would slow the rising costs of health care will have little overall effect on spending in the next 10 years, according to an analysis by government actuaries.
Survey: 2/3rds of physicians say they are using personal devices for mobile health solutions that aren’t connected to their practice or hospital IT systems – 1/3rd said their hospital or practice leaders will not support the use of mobile health devices.
Largely tucked away from the view of the general public is an intense debate over the future role of health-insurance brokers in the United States
According to a new report by the Dartmouth Atlas Project concludes there is no simple relationship between the supply of physicians and access to primary care
The surgeons believed that patients not only consented to the operation itself but also committed themselves to any care after the operation necessary for successful outcomes.
3M Co. clinched its third deal in two weeks on Thursday with an agreement to buy specialty medical-products maker Arizant Inc., highlighting the conglomerate’s shift toward using acquisitions to propel its growth.
Dr. James Brockman has taken on a new business model – No insurance is accepted at his Affordable Health Care Center, which offers visits starting at $45 and capped at $100 for more complicated cases
Companies expect to spend an average of 5.9% more per employee on health insurance next year after shifting some costs to workers and making other changes, according to a survey by Mercer.
A new government study says President Obama’s health care law will have negligible effects on total national health spending in the next 10 years, neither slowing nor fueling the explosive growth of medical costs.
Among the many ways ObamaCare seeks to expand federal dominance over health care is with the billions of dollars it is offering to lure states into new programs, from which they’ll never escape
One of the country’s most technologically advanced hospitals is outsourcing part of its health IT function to a technology-support consultancy
Patients are willing to use remote or mobile monitoring devices to transmit health info right to their physicians — they just don’t want to pay much for them
The Food and Drug Administration is looking into whether smartphone apps that allow patients to monitor their vital signs wirelessly should earn FDA approval before implementation.
Researchers have calculated that more than half of the 354 million doctor visits made each year are not with a patient’s primary physician, and that more than a quarter take place in hospital emergency rooms
The Department of Health and Human Services has released for health plans seeking a waiver from the healthcare reform law’s restrictions on plans’ ability to place annual limits on essential health benefits.
Faced with premiums that continue to rise faster than inflation, employers are opting to load more of that cost onto employees, whose bargaining power evaporated in the Great Recession
The number of healthcare entities reporting breaches of unsecured PHI affecting 500 or more individuals has crossed the 150 mark, nearly one year after the first such breach was reported.
Silverfleet plans $800mln Sterigenics sale
How many times do you have to get permission from patients before you use their medical data for research? From the patients’ point of view, the answer is “every time,” a new study suggests
With healthcare reform introducing anywhere from 20 to 40 million new patients into the healthcare system, hospitals must address self-pay balances as a way of controlling bad debt.
A trip to a retail clinic or urgent care center can substitute for a trip to the emergency department for between 13.7% and 27.1% of patients who don’t require hospital level of care, “with a potential cost-saving of $4.4 billion annually.”
Although Florida’s once booming population has leveled off, its roll of Medicaid recipients has soared by nearly 50 percent in the last three years, exacerbating an already dire state budget crisis.
New federal health reform legislation over the next several years will pump millions of additional dollars into similar home visitation programs for new and expecting mothers with the goal of reducing rates of premature birth and infant mortality.
Many people may not realize that, in some ways, the new law will expand options for patients at the end of life.
The proportion of U.S. adults who smoke seems to be stalled at around 21%. What’s it going to take to push that number lower, and to further limit the number of tobacco-related deaths?
St. Jude Medical’s agreement to invest $60 million in venture-backed cardiac device maker CardioMEMS Inc. includes an exclusive option to buy the company for $375 million.
ResCare Inc. agreed to an increased buyout offer from Toronto-based investment firm Onex Corp. that values the provider of home care to the elderly and people with disabilities at about $384 million.
Medical groups that perform heart bypass surgery are now being rated alongside cars and toaster ovens in Consumer Reports.
A group of researchers this week estimated that the annual cost related to medical liability is $55.6 billion — or 2.4 percent of the nation’s healthcare spending.
Can access to primary care be maintained, much less improved, when an already inadequate and inefficient system takes on an expected 32 million newly insured customers?
Uniformity of practice is a nonsensical goal that fails to allow for differing expression of disease states
The reform law establishes a three-year “concurrent care” demonstration program at 15 sites nationwide, in which Medicare would cover both hospice care and any further life-prolonging treatment simultaneously
Donald Berwick is moving quickly behind the scenes to seed the US health care system with 100 to 300 sites to test new models of caring for patients.
Software designers are developing games aimed at helping people improve their health in a variety of ways, be it getting diabetics to eat right or leading Parkinson’s patients through rehabilitation.
A reversal of federal policy that lets trial lawyers use litigation expenses as tax deductions would result in more frivolous malpractice lawsuits
Mobile robots are now being used in hundreds of hospitals nationwide – and they are being tested as caregivers in assisted-living centers.
A handful of House Democrats are making health care reform an election year issue — by running against it.
Donald Berwick, appointee to run Medicare and Medicaid, has described himself as “romantic about the NHS.” Given what goes on in British hospitals, Dr. Berwick really is a romantic, though not in the sense he means
DHHS announced Wednesday that three sets of grants and cooperative agreements totaling nearly $17 million have been made available for comparative effectiveness research.
Mr. Wyden wrote, and “Because you and I believe that the heart of real health reform is affordability and not mandates, I wanted to bring this feature of Section 1332 to the attention of you and the legislature.”
Worker contributions to employer- sponsored health-insurance premiums rose an average 14 percent this year to about $4,000 for U.S. families as employers shifted more costs to employees,
Fraud Alert: Regulators Probe Health Credit Cards
How health policy commissions are incorporated into the MLR can have a significant impact on the economics of insurance brokers, whose future role in health care is of great concern to the commissioners.
Veterans will be able to go to the VA website, click a simple blue button, and download or print their personal health records to share with doctors outside of the VA
Almost half of Americans took at least one prescription drug per month in 2008, an increase of 10 percent over the past decade, a U.S. study found.
Thomson Reuters has acquired healthcare benefits auditor and expense management consultants Healthcare Data Management, Inc., effective immediately. Financial terms were not disclosed.
With a law as long and as complex as the PPACA, it’s natural people are still a little confused about what it does and doesn’t do. Here are some of the more popular myths about the law
Health care spending this year has grown at its slowest rate in a half-century, a sign that people are forgoing medical care during the recession, a USA TODAY analysis of government data finds
Total patient visits to physician offices were down 7.3% in July from the July 2009—the fourth consecutive month to post negative growth in physician visits. Overall, primary care visits were down by 5.7% for the month.
Some asked for changes to Interqual and Milliman guidelines used by hospitals to determine what illnesses should result in a patient’s hospitalization. Others suggested Medicare stick with the observation category but help patients qualify for followup coverage under the three-day rule.
Proton therapy, an emerging form of radiation treatment for cancer, is available at only 28 centers worldwide. A new company is looking to raise $250 million to expand access to the treatment
More workers at small businesses will get medical insurance thanks to health care reform, study predicts
More ‘empowered’ patients question doctors’ orders
As part of the run up to the November elections, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, has established an “action arm” to push for repeal of health care reform
CarePayment Technologies, Inc. Acquires Vitality Financial, Further Enhancing Flexible Payment Options for Patients Nationwide
As companies increasingly get creative about holding the line on health care costs, more are turning to inexpensive wellness programs
Sutter Health’s 24 hospitals and its network of 4,700 physicians in Northern California have teamed up with iTriage, a mobile phone application that provides patients with data about doctors and nearby hospitals
The stethoscope – medical icon, lifesaver and doctor’s best friend – is disappearing from hospitals across the world as physicians increasingly use their smartphones to monitor patients’ heartbeats
Medicare last week finally leveled a pre-emptive strike against smoking and agreed to pay for counseling for senior smokers who are not yet sick
Medicare will be cut by billions of dollars under health care reform, so why do people say the law will keep Medicare afloat longer? Did they flunk math?
Increasingly, the doctor is not in when it comes to delivering primary care. But the nurse practitioner or physician assistant is often taking the doctor’s place.
Today’s uninsured and privately insured adults are, on average, healthier than the adults currently enrolled in the program. That suggests that people who enroll in Medicaid under health-care overhaul aren’t likely to be as expensive
Enrollment begins today for adults 19 to 64 interested in Michigan’s high-risk pool. It will provide comprehensive but not necessarily cheap coverage for people who can prove they have been denied health insurance in the past six months.
Availity Acquires RealMed, Adds Award Winning Revenue Cycle Solutions to Suite of Health Information Network Offerings
Vita Advisors, LLC is a research-based strategic advisory firm serving the health care industry.
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