Issues that unfolded in 2010 will continue to be especially important for physicians in 2011, whether physicians are changing their practices or cutting back on their hours.
Republicans are preparing an array of budgetary, legislative and political strategies to fight regulatory action by President Obama.
There’s a physician in Los Angeles who wants to give you $3 million. All you have to do is design an elegant math model that accurately identifies which of 100,000 Medicare Advantage patients from an actual 2009 database required an unplanned hospital admission in 2010.
Accountable care organizations are at the heart of this program, which is intended to coordinate healthcare providers serving patient populations of at least 5,000.
In the weirdest news I’ve seen in a while, SureScripts has become an ONC-ATCB.
A 2009 National Alliance for Caregiving/AARP study found that 88 percent of family caregivers never get a break from this full-time job.
New taxes on drug makers, lower prescription-drug costs for seniors and restrictions on tax-free medical spending accounts are among a slate of health-law provisions that kick in Saturday.
CVS Caremark Corp. agreed to buy the Medicare Part D unit of Universal American Financial Corp. for about $1.25 billion
Community Health’s Hostile Takeover Attempt Shatters Holiday Calm
So Young and So Many Pills – More than 25% of Kids and Teens in the U.S. Take Prescriptions on a Regular Basis
What Health Plans Can Expect in 2011
ReSearch Pharmaceutical Services, Inc. (RPS) has entered into an agreement to sell the company to affiliates of Warburg Pincus, LLC, the global private equity firm, in an all cash transaction valued at $6.10 per share
Ten million people alive in Britain today, 17 percent of the population, will probably live to be 100 or more, the London-based Times reported
The Office of the Inspector General is positioning itself for its monitoring responsibilities of Medicare and Medicaid information systems and data security.
Allscripts Sunrise Acute Care, Version 5.5 and Sunrise Emergency Care Version 5.5 have been certified as Complete Electronic Health Records for 2011/2012 by the federal government’s CCHIT
Study looked at 89 patients with various stages of head and neck squamous cell carcinomas whose primary tumor was resected using the da Vinci Robot.
The legal challenge to the Obama health care act has invigorated a dispute as old as the Constitution
Unnecessary surgeries cost at least $150 billion a year, according to the Center for Healthcare Outcomes & Policy at the University of Michigan.
Health insurers are preparing to capitalize on $40 billion of new opportunities to run privately managed Medicaid plans for the states, which would position insurers to benefit from the health overhaul’s expansion of Medicaid in 2014.
Standard measures of hospital quality aren’t improved much by the use of electronic medical records, according to a recently published study by Rand Corp. researchers.
Patient-centered, interconnected care is good thing for all healthcare and especially for the most troublesome disease states.
As the New Year arrives, it’s time to analyze what we’ve gotten out of HITECH.
SXC Health Solutions completed the previously disclosed acquisition of MedfusionRx, LLC
Health Plans for High-Risk Patients Attracting Fewer, Costing More Than Expected
For years, published articles revealed scant information about the financial conflicts of authors – Doctors say those articles have incalculable value to device-makers trying to increase sales of their products.
Online Tool Takes the ‘Wait’ Out of Waiting Rooms
5 Hospital Finance Questions to Ask Right Now
The smoldering dispute between the Medical Device Manufacturers Association and group purchasing organizations sparked to life recently
Palladium Equity Partners has acquired Jordan Healthcare Holdings, one of the largest providers of home healthcare in Texas
Does Health Care Reform Require Title Reform?
A recent report shows that most hospitals do not use or plan to use the so-called “intelligent medical devices
Under the new policy, outlined in a Medicare regulation, the government will pay doctors who advise patients on options for end-of-life care, which may include advance directives to forgo aggressive life-sustaining treatment.
The individual mandate is not the only problem with the health law. Its draconian Medicaid mandates on states exceed Congress’s spending power.
Health Reform Gutted After Supremes Reject Mandate
Extreme Makeover for Healthcare Next Year? PwC Publishes its Top Health Industry Issues for 2011
CMS and the ONC announced that registration will begin January 3, 2011, for eligible providers hoping to participate in the Medicare electronic health record (EHR) incentive program
Many hospital patients are being turned away for potentially life-saving injection treatments in what may be the largest U.S. hospital drug shortage in over two decades.
Seniors 65 and older had more than 14 million hospital stays, or more than one-third of all U.S. community hospital stays and 14%, or $157.7 billion, of total hospital costs for 2008, says the statistical brief.
New From Google: The Body Browser
The developer of a medical archiving cloud application to make it easier for physicians to share medical images and make quick diagnoses by collaborating on images online.
Reform Law Prompts Some Health Plans To Cut Mental-Health Benefits
CMS Delays Enforcement of Signature Requirement on Lab Orders
A new study finds that while doctors are fearful of being sued for malpractice, their worries are greater than their actual risk of landing in court.
Medicaid Demands Push States Toward `Cliff’ Even as Governors Cut Benefits
The measure passed by Congress doesn’t contain money the Obama administration wanted to ramp up enforcement of new regulations for the financial services industry and to lay the groundwork for the national health care law.
Blumenthal to set aggressive pace for health data exchange
Watch for EMR Company Consolidation but Not EMR Software Consolidation
President Obama on Saturday signed the bill that changes the Red Flags Rule’s definition of “creditor” and relieves some physicians of having to comply with the Federal Trade Commission’s identity theft prevention law.
Medical Tourism: Search for world’s best health care is leading more people to Michigan
Confidentiality Cloaks Medicare Abuse
In a move to protect consumers, the Obama administration said Tuesday that it would require health insurance companies to disclose and justify any rate increases of 10 percent or more next year.
There are enough children’s doctors in the United States, they just work in the wrong places, a new study finds.
Different Methods to Become a Top EMR Company
According to the indices S&P tracks, professional services care costs continued to outpace hospital costs.
Riverside Partners announced that it has made a majority equity investment in Dominion Diagnostics, a leading laboratory services company focused on quantitative testing to support patient medication monitoring.
Oregon is making it easier for the seriously ill to voluntarily make their wishes known about end-of-life care by creating an electronic database that first responders can quickly check during a medical emergency.
Meaningful Use Tops Healthcare Industry Challenges for 2011
Two-thirds of emergency department administrators believe that the reform law will increase their patient volume, while just 5 percent say patient volume will decrease, according to a new survey of more than 600 administrators
Highly anticipated regulations defining what constitutes “unreasonable” health insurance premium increases are expected any day now that federal regulators
Trusting Relationships with Technology and Its Importance in Healthcare
How to Be RAC-Ready in 2011
When it comes to the future of the Obama administration’s health care plan, the judicial math can seem simple.
Some health policy experts are pondering a possible “Plan B” in case the individual mandate – the requirement that everyone get health insurance starting in 2014 – is weakened or struck down.
Who Might Stay Uninsured In Spite Of The Individual Mandate
Patients with mental and behavioral health issues rather than physical ailments often cause a bottleneck in hospital emergency rooms for “up to a week or more” because inpatient psychiatric beds are lacking
The Obama administration’s health- care reform should be thrown out because it overreaches the federal government’s authority, opponents argued in a Florida lawsuit
The number of hospitalists has increased to more than 30,000 and a report cited by The Hospitalist this fall shows that median compensation for adult hospitalists is $215,000 per year.
For hospital IT executives who are trying to meet federal “meaningful use” standards for electronic health records by early spring, it was a rough fall.
Under a little-known provision of the health overhaul law, insurers will be required to provide their benefits information on a standardized chart using the same plain English terms as other companies
Opponents of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law are a cheering a federal court ruling that one of its core provisions is unconstitutional. They may not realize that Obama has a fallback option that also could do the job.
The Obama Administration is looking for sophisticated fraud-fighting tools which could enable federal agencies to catch illegal Medicare and Medicaid practices as they happen.
The president’s bioethics commission has concluded that there is no need to temporarily halt research or to impose new regulations on the controversial new field known as synthetic biology.
In a bid to cash in on its high-quality but expensive medical industry Japan said Friday it will ease visa requirements to encourage the flow of wealthy travelers seeking medical treatment here
If you’re a Medicare beneficiary, a new study finds the odds of either ending up dead or back in the hospital within a year are 62%.
The administrations crackdown on health care fraud is paying dividends, recovering more than $4 billion in Massachusetts alone during the past two years.
Federal regulators have adopted at least 18 new rules since passage of the healthcare reform law eight and a half months ago, according to the Congressional Research Service
The AMA is urging health insurers to automate and streamline the current cumbersome preauthorization process so physicians can manage patient care more efficiently
“The growth is not in inpatient. If you don’t have strong outpatient facilities, you don’t have much hope.”
Private Equity Investment In Health Care To Increase Next Year, Study Says
Insurance companies could tap into a potential $40 billion market globally by tailoring products for lower-income earners in emerging markets who cannot afford traditional insurance
“Medicaid’s killing all of our state budgets,” Gov.-elect Rick Scott told a conservative blog during a Republican Party of Florida meeting this weekend.
The HIPAA privacy and security rule enforcer plans to release final rules regarding the HITECH and HIPAA next year.
Everyday Health, Inc., a leading provider of online health solutions, announced today that it has acquired MedPage Today, LLC, a news organization serving healthcare professionals.
Though they have battled for more than a year, President Obama and the health insurance industry agree that the requirement for most Americans to obtain insurance is essential to the success of the new health care law.
Stanley Black & Decker acquired InfoLogix, Inc. a leading provider of enterprise mobility solutions for the healthcare and commercial industries
United Seating & Mobility, one of the nation’s premier complex mobility equipment suppliers, is excited to announce today that it has finalized a transaction with Alliance Homecare Equipment to acquire its Complex Mobility Business
GE Healthcare announced a cost-effective, subscription-based library of online courses for nurses to learn and receive continuing education credit in clinical, leadership and development
The percentage of physicians reporting having an electronic medical record/electronic health record (EMR/EHR) system that meets the criteria of a basic system increased by 14% and a fully functional system increased by 46%.
Can Hospitals Break Even with Medicare?
The FDA hasn’t yet weighed in on how pharma should be using social media and that, says a report from Deloitte, is one of the chief reasons more life sciences companies haven’t embraced social networking more aggressively.
By contradicting two prior opinions, Monday’s court ruling in Virginia against the Obama health care law highlighted both the novelty of the constitutional issues and the difficulty of forging consensus among judges
The Obama administration’s health- care overhaul unconstitutionally requires Americans to maintain a minimum level of health insurance, a federal judge ruled
Health insurers offering so-called “mini med” plans must notify customers in plain language and within 60 days that their insurance plans offer extremely limited benefits
Tenet’s board of directors unanimously rejected the offer as “inadequate,” and added that “Community Health’s stock appears to be over-valued and is not a desirable currency for Tenet shareholders.”
UNEQUAL access to health care is hardly a new phenomenon in the United States, but the country is moving toward rationing on a scale that is unprecedented here
CDC: Half of Doctors Are Using Electronic Medical Records to Some Extent
Tele-ICU technology could save 350 additional lives and more than $122 million annually if broadly and effectively implemented across Massachusetts
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center 1,800 physicians are the latest and largest physicians group to sign a global budget contract for HMO patients at Blue Cross
How Release-of-Information Outsourcing Can Curb Economic Risk
Principle Pharmacy Group Divests Hospital Management Division, Changes Name to ContinuumRx
4 Ways to Think About ACO Strategy
The Senate and House have each passed a bill that changes the Red Flags Rule’s definition of “creditor” and relieves doctors of complying with the Federal Trade Commission’s identity theft prevention law.
Young people ages 31 to 64 now make up 14 percent of the nursing home population
Patients needing lab work can go to the medical society’s website – from there they choose the tests their doctor says they need, pay with a credit card, then take the order to any LabCorp location in 47 states and have the work done. Results sent within 24 hours.
The Obama administration has allowed 222 employers, insurers and unions to opt out of a key mandate in the new health care law – a number that has grown exponentially in the past two months.
At least 1.5 million people will soon receive notices from employers or insurers that their health plans fall short of meeting a key standard in the new health overhaul law – and by how much.
IHI Forum Reflections: 10 ‘Aha’ Moments
Stripped-Down Health Plans Must Disclose Limitations To Consumers
Developing Robots for the Hospital Emergency Room: Researchers develop basic technology to create robot assistants that can perform effectively in the chaotic ER
To address re-admissions, more than a dozen hospitals may join an experiment: Upend the traditional way they are paid and set in motion changes that could both boost patient care and reduce preventable admissions.
On face, it seems that the effort to get the EMR stimulus money shouldn’t be affected by which EMR software you choose as long as it is an ONC-ATCB certified EMR. However, this is just categorically WRONG!
Drug makers Abbott Laboratories, B. Braun Medical, and Roxane Laboratories will pay $421 million to settle whistleblower allegations that they inflated prices for drugs paid for by Medicare and Medicaid
Five of the nation’s largest health insurance companies are taking a key step toward building their own inside-the-Beltway coalition to influence implementation of the new health law and congressional efforts to change it.
For the fourth year running, the nonprofit ECRI Institute has put together a list of what it judges to be the top ten health technology hazards on which health-care facilities should focus their efforts.
In dispelling rumors that much of the healthcare reform legislation could be gutted, Sebelius pledged that the new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Center, funded $10 billion to develop new payment and delivery of care models, is a reality
Tweaks to the Medicare Part D drug coverage plan could result in a big cost saving for beneficiaries in 2011
But Mr. Issa said it may be time to consider costs as well as efficacy, as long as medical decisions are made by doctors, not by “bureaucrats” in government. “Republicans have to step back from the words ‘death panels,’ ” Mr. Issa said.
For years, hospitals have complained of getting the short end of the stick on reimbursements. Come to find out, they were just blowing smoke.
The federal government must facilitate the widespread adoption of universal standards that will allow healthcare stakeholders to better share electronic health information and maintain patient privacy
The Certification Commission for Health Information Technology (CCHIT) is launching a new EHR certification program for hospitals that have uncertified legacy software, customized commercial products or self-developed EHR systems
A controversial practice in which physicians self-refer patients for imaging tests with the doctors’ own equipment does not result in shorter length of illness
While many investigative efforts have unequivocally shown that healthcare spending variation exists across geographic regions in the U.S., the causation and effects of this variation have remained at the forefront of healthcare research
Aetna Inc., the third-largest U.S. medical insurer, agreed to buy closely held Medicity Inc. for about $500 million to expand its health-information services
U.S. physicians would get a one-year reprieve from a 25 percent cut in the fees they receive from Medicare under an agreement announced by senators
The Medicare payment advisory panel is warning that accountable care organizations (ACOs), boosted by the new healthcare reform law, might face public backlash
The government’s broad insider-trading investigation is focusing in part on how hedge funds may have traded on information obtained from consultants such as doctors who were hired to discuss their work with investor
Congressional Republicans are hoping to put Democrats in a no-win new year’s jam: defund a big chunk of their health care overhaul or slash Medicare payments instead
An Office of Personnel Management plan to launch a comprehensive database of federal workers’ health care records has raised the ire of some privacy advocates, employee unions and consumer groups
Senate Republican to push states’ rights in response to healthcare law
State Medicaid pharmacy programs could save more than $30 billion over the next decade if they switched from fee-for-service programs to the more efficient approaches used by Medicare Part D plans
For many patients, a visit to the hospital is beginning to look a lot like a stay in a luxury hotel
Nothing is ever easy for providers in the ever-fluctuating realm of recovery audit contractors, and the latest spell of operational hiccups heard nationwide is no exception.
Online drug-comparison tools can help consumers research a drug’s cost, including less-expensive alternatives, and any potential side effects
Health Insurance Brokers Fight for Their Future
Family health insurance premiums for employer-sponsored plans rose 41% between 2003 and 2009, according to a study by The Commonwealth Fund
Allergan Inc.’s stomach-shrinking Lap-Band won a favorable vote from a federal advisory panel Friday, showing how surgery rather than drugs is increasingly gaining favor as a treatment for obesity
The U.S. Justice Department said it will ease the transition under the new federal health-care law for doctors and hospitals by helping them avoid antitrust violations when they form professional organizations.
In the latest survey on EMR Implementation by the HealthLeaders Media Intelligence Division, dozens of CEOs and hundreds of other leaders in the C-suite talk frankly about how seriously their organization is taking the importance of the EMR.
The health care cuts proposed by President Barack Obama’s deficit commission would reach virtually every corner of society
Effective at the beginning of October, Arizona stopped financing certain transplant operations under the state’s version of Medicaid. Many doctors say the decision amounts to a death sentence for some low-income patients
Is it essential that health insurance protect people from the worst-case scenario? That’s the heart of the debate over limited-benefit, or so-called mini-med plans
Physician Foundation released a survey last month that took a look at physicians’ opinions about the state of healthcare. Short version: not good.
Top 5 Holiday Gifts for Physicians: As the clock runs down on 2010 and thoughts turn to year-end gifts, let us consider some of the most sought-after goodies for physicians and healthcare executives.
Health Insurers Gird for MLR Changes
Opto Circuits Successfully Acquires Approximately 76% of Cardiac Science’s Shares
From Pennsylvania to New Mexico, newly elected Republican governors urged the next Congress to roll back its regulatory reach, particularly when it comes to Medicaid, the state-federal health program for the poor.
Medical Errors Stubbornly Common, Studies Find
Weight-loss surgery, once a last resort for extremely overweight people, may soon become an option for those who are less heavy.
Opponents Take Aim at Limited Health Plans
If you were hoping that the new health-care reform law will address the issue of prescription-drug pricing, think again
Hospitals and medical practices that implement electronic medical records could end up paying more for liability insurance, at least in the short term, an insurance industry research group has concluded.
The health care cuts proposed by President Barack Obama’s deficit commission would reach virtually every corner of society, making cost curbs in the new overhaul law look tame by comparison
Plan To Cut Deficit Would Sock Seniors On Medicare
Hanger Orthopedic Group, Inc. announced the acquisition of Accelerated Care Plus, the nation’s leading provider of integrated clinical programs for sub-acute and long-term care rehabilitation providers
High-tech monitoring system could save lives and money, study finds
SXC Health Solutions Corp. has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MedfusionRx, LLC for a purchase price of $100 million
MD On-Line, a proven leader in enabling interoperable electronic data interchange (EDI) transactions between healthcare insurance companies and healthcare providers, today announced that it has acquired Healthware Solutions LLC
A bill giving federal regulators broad new powers over food safety passed the Senate on Tuesday, marking the first big response in Congress to contamination scares in recent years.
Spurred by incentives in the federal health-overhaul law, hospitals and doctors around the country are beginning to create new entities that aim to provide more efficient health care.
ProAssurance Corporation announced the completion of its previously announced acquisition of American Physicians Service Group, Inc.
Savvy physician practices are preparing for the increased demand with a team approach to care delivery that is designed to cut down wait times and optimize physician face time.
If you thought the major obstacle in health care debt collection stemmed from an inability of most patients to pay their outstanding bills, particularly their deductibles and co-pays, you’d be wrong.
Phys Ed: Why Wii Fit Is Best for Grandparents
Health-care reform and stimulus spending were pilloried in the recent election, but the government’s drive to digitize the sector has found support from private equity.
Vita Advisors, LLC is a research-based strategic advisory firm serving the health care industry.
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