The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services overpaid Medicare Advantage plans between $1.2 billion and $3.1 billion in 2010, and likely overpaid even more in 2011
Here’s a bold prediction for the new year. By 2020, the American health insurance industry will be extinct.
AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. announced it has completed the sale of its home healthcare business to BAYADA Home Health Care, Inc.
The 2010 health-care overhaul creates state-based health plans for those who have medical conditions that make them uninsurable in the private market. As of November, about 45,000 people had signed up for those plans, far fewer than the up to 400,000 that was originally projected – why?
Why haven’t hospitals made more progress on patient safety? The reasons boil down to the fact that hospitals are hierarchical organizations resistant to change, they haven’t done enough to create environments in which patient safety is a priority, and they’ve been reluctant to share patient-safety data with the public
While a Florida state House committee approved legislation that would expand the state’s requirement that certain providers post the out-of-pocket prices of common health care services, a state Senate committee shot down a similar measure
More doctors are inquiring about their patients’ pain, difficulty accomplishing everyday activities, embarrassment about a condition and other issues that physicians traditionally haven’t considered.
A new federal study found that Americans are getting screened for three major cancers — breast, cervical and colorectal — at rates far below national targets.
America may be a technology-driven nation, but the health care system’s conversion from paper to computerized records needs lots of work to get the bugs out
A new study from a team of Harvard researchers explores how health insurance plans with high deductible effect the care that families do, and don’t, seek.
Omnicare Inc. was sued by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to block its $440.8 million takeover of rival drug-supply company PharMerica Corp.
CMS denied on Friday a request from the Texas Department of Insurance to allow health insurers in the state more time to meet new MLR standards
Millions now manage aging parents’ care from afar
The number of Americans in prison older than 55 is growing at a faster rate than the group’s share of the population at large, and many prisons are unprepared to provide them with health care
How Health Care Dropped Out Of The Presidential Conversation
Physician Referral Patterns Ripe for Scrutiny
WellPoint Inc. (WLP), the largest U.S. health insurer by enrollment, will raise the amount of money participating doctors receive in an effort to improve the quality of care.
Merger and acquisition activity in rehabilitation facilities, laboratories, and managed care contributed to an 11% increase in the dollar value of M&A deals in the healthcare industry in 2011
Health care reform: House GOP waits for Supreme Court
The largest physicians lobby has sent House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) a letter urging him to halt a federal requirement forcing doctors to switch to new insurance codes in 2013.
Consumer groups fear White House may water down rule on user-friendly health plan summaries
Care for Seniors Saps WellPoint Profit
Illumina adopts takeover defense to try to ward off Roche’s hostile takeover attempt
Outreach Services Merger With Cardon Healthcare Creates Largest Provider of Eligibility Services to Hospitals
Roche Offers $5.7 Billion for Gene Company Illumina
Independent Payment Advisory Board exists in law, resides in limbo
But can social spending sites like Groupon work for hospital marketers? The answer is unequivocally yes—if they are used cautiously and strategically to help hospitals attract new lifelong patients.
U.S. Panel Measuring Adequacy of Cures Lays Out Broad Agenda
MSC Care Management Announces the Acquisition of Total Medical Solutions
The Obama administration is finally poised to enact badly needed regulations requiring that the manufacturers of drugs, medical devices and medical supplies disclose all payments they make to doctors or teaching hospitals.
This is the year that will make or break the health care law. But an analysis by The Associated Press shows that states are moving in fits and starts.
Medicare Cuts Could Slash 278K Hospital Jobs, Warns AHA
As the nation’s economic slump continues, growing numbers of uninsured patients are straining community health facilities
Unaffordable new drugs, even when they’re covered by insurance, are being rationed by price: how to pay for the spectacular rise in the cost of cancer care, especially drugs and diagnostic tests.
Chefs, Butlers, Marble Baths: Hospitals Vie for the Affluent
Venture Funding Rises 10% in 2011 as Consumer Web Attracts Cash
If you have commercial health insurance coverage, at some point or another, you’ve been paying for the shortfall in reimbursement from state and federal governments
Eastman Kodak Co.’s problems: The company has twice as many retirees drawing benefits in the U.S. as it has active employees world-wide.
Consumer spending has surged as a proportion of the U.S. economy since the mid 1960s, and it’s not because Americans splurged on cars, clothes or vacations. Instead they were looking after their wellbeing.
President Obama has signed bills axing provisions of healthcare reform: a tax reporting requirement for small businesses, and a “glitch” that would have made middle-income people eligible for Medicaid. Republicans have also benefited from the demise of the law’s CLASS program
Osteoporosis Patients Advised to Delay Bone Density Retests
Wisconsin will turn down $37 million from the federal government that had been awarded to help implement health care exchanges under President Barack Obama’s health care reform law, Gov. Scott Walker said Wednesday
CBO: Medicare cost-cutting programs haven’t worked
Big Data — the ability to collect, process and interpret massive amounts of information — is one of today’s most important technological drivers. While companies see it as a way of detecting weak market signals, one of the biggest potential areas of application for society is health care.
Aetna Seeks to Acquire Consumer-Data Companies to Expand Market, CEO Says
Eliminating Individual Mandate Would Come With Strings
States and the federal government were projected to spend about $442 billion combined on Medicaid in 2011, with about 61 percent covered by the U.S.
The next time you sign up for health insurance, the cheapest option may well be a “tiered” plan, insurance that rates doctors and hospitals based on the cost and quality of their care and then charges you based on your provider’s rating.
Fourteen have established health insurance exchange marketplaces and another five intend to do so. Then, there are the less active states: 22 states continue to study their options, while two have decided not to do anything at all.
In the long-running war to hold down health care spending, controlling cancer chemotherapy costs looms as the next great battleground.
Retail Labs Give Patients Information, But Needle Doctors
Evidence is mounting that second opinions—particularly on radiology images and pathology slides from biopsies—can lead to significant changes in a patient’s diagnosis or in recommendations for treating a disease.
Look for mergers and acquisitions to remain strong in 2012 and for physician groups to remain at the top of almost everyone’s must-have list.
Congress and the Obama administration are betting more than $3 billion over the next decade that “comparative effectiveness” research can transform medical care by helping determine the best approach to a particular illness
By 2050, 13 million to 16 million Americans are projected to have Alzheimer’s, costing $1 trillion in medical and nursing home expenditures.
The Obama administration is poised to require drug companies to disclose the payments they make to doctors for research, consulting, speaking, travel and entertainment.
A new program at Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids, MI is identifying “frequent fliers” at the system’s emergency departments and placing those patients with a multi-specialist intervention team.
The Sleep Apnea Business Is Booming, And Insurers Aren’t Happy
A Doctor in Your Pocket – What does the future of medicine hold? Tiny health monitors, tailored therapies—and the end of illness
In 2009, just 1 percent of the non-institutionalized population accounted for 21.8 percent of all U.S. health spending. And just 5 percent accounted for half the total spending.
School Health Corporation Acquires EnableMart to Expand Product Offering Into Schools
The Obama administration said Thursday that rate increases sought by a health insurance company were unreasonable, and it ordered the insurer to rescind them or justify its refusal to do so.
Is 2012 The Year Of Online Patients?
In 2009, 1% of the nation’s civilian population required healthcare spending that was slightly greater than in 2008, an increase from 20.2% to 21.8% of $1.26 trillion in treatment dollars
The offer of a fitness club membership is helping insurers including UnitedHealth Group Inc. and Humana Inc. draw healthier and less costly patients to their Medicare programs
Use of guideline-recommended cancer therapy increased by more than 50% when oncologists included a tumor’s gene expression profile in the decision-making process, according to a study reported here.
The federal government could save $148 billion over 10 years by increasing Medicare eligibility two years to age 67, the Congressional Budget Office reported on Tuesday.
To help prevent overtesting and overtreatment of older patients — or undertreatment for those who remain robust at advanced ages — medical guidelines increasingly call for doctors to consider life expectancy as a factor in their decision-making
By threatening a loss of federal funds, Congress unconstitutionally coerced states into expanding their Medicaid programs, the states led by Florida argued.
Repealing Medicare’s sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula for physician pay — a goal that always seems just out of reach — poses a dilemma for lawmakers that could make the measure even harder to pass.
MedData, Inc., a leading provider of medical billing services, announced today the acquisition of MedDirect, Inc., a Grand Rapids, Mich.-based patient services company.
Community-based weight-loss programs have not been shown to be effective at reducing the incidence of diabetes, so implementing a national program would likely be money down the drain
As USA grays, elder abuse risk and need for shelters grow
Some doctors want your credit card number before they’ll make an appointment
WebMD Health Corp., the Internet provider of medical information, plunged the most in almost six months after saying it ended discussions on a possible sale of the company and the chief executive officer resigned
The 26 states challenging President Obama’s healthcare law sought to link the law’s Medicaid expansion to its individual insurance mandate in a brief filed with the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Measuring Quality: 368 New Ideas For 2012
The growth of health clinics inside retail stores rebounded in 2011 and is poised for a “second spring” this year, driven by well-capitalized retailers and grocers
Many people assume insurance offered by their employer is a better deal than they can get on their own. But while the premiums can be lower, such policies have drawbacks.
Telemedicine as Talent Strategy
An app that allows U.K. asthma sufferers to manage their condition is officially launched today. Developers say that other European countries will be added shortly.
Growth In U.S. Health Spending Stays Slow; Experts Cite Lagging Economy
Avista Capital Partners Agrees to Sell BioReliance to Sigma-Aldrich Corporation
10 Hospital Technologies to Watch Carefully
ICU Nurses Favor Personal Touch in Telemedicine
Health Care Reform you Can Expect in 2012
The Obama administration is headed into a Supreme Court case over healthcare reform without a clear answer to significant questions about Congress’s power.
Standardizing Electronic Health Payments Could Save $4.5 Billion
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has tapped 73 healthcare professionals for its innovation advisors program.
Iowa is poised to build a health information exchange (HIE) that will make it possible for even small rural medical practices to share patient information.
Nine states have asked the federal government for more money to make sure their new high-risk pools that provide health coverage for people with pre-existing conditions don’t run out of money before 2014
RealPage Acquires Vigilan, SaaS Provider to the Senior Living Industry
A national hospice company improperly cycled patients through nursing homes and hospice with a goal of making as much profit as possible from Medicare
Top 12 Healthcare Quality Concerns in 2012
4 Simmering Crises Congress Must Face in 2012
U.S. Denies Bids by Kansas, Oklahoma for Health Law Waivers
Drug Companies Reduce Payments to Doctors as Scrutiny Mounts
Devices to Keep Track of Calories, Lost or Gained
A 111-page report from a Citigroup analyst features a gloomy outlook on government health-care funding and a downgrade on several hospital stocks
Spending by federal government agencies on health IT systems and services will grow from $4.5 billion in 2011 to $6.5 billion in 2016, a new report projects.
On December 16, the Obama administration announced its intention to let states determine their own “essential benefits” – in this explainer, Stateline examines how the new approach will work
A recent decision by Gov. Scott Walker could give the federal government greater influence over the state’s health insurance market – and that worries some in the industry.
Top 12 Healthcare Buzzwords for 2012
S.E.D. Medical Laboratories will soon become part of Quest Diagnostics Incorporated the world leader in diagnostic testing, information and services
Nowhere to Go, Patients Linger in Hospitals, at a High Cost
A Push to Tie New Drugs to Testing
In-Hospital Mortality Rates Not an Accurate Measure of Care Quality
Vita Advisors, LLC is a research-based strategic advisory firm serving the health care industry.
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