Legislation, passed by the Senate yesterday in a 96-1 vote, raises the so-called user fees that industries will pay the FDA for safety and efficacy reviews by more than $2 billion from the previous five-year period.
As if Facebook didn’t grab enough headlines on Wall Street this week, the social media forum is also making healthcare news that should prompt any leader to pay close attention.
Comcast Bets on Wearable Monitor Company BodyMedia
Hospice marketers, exploring possibilities for new revenue to help continue the industry’s remarkable growth, are looking to exploit a provision in the 2010 health care law by persuading hospitals to send Medicare patients into end-of-life hospice care instead of readmitting them to the hospital.
There are people whose household incomes are slightly above the threshold to qualify for Medicaid’s free or low-cost coverage. Congress gave states the option of creating a so-called Basic Health Plan which would complement the health care law’s main program, a health insurance exchange.
The Federal Communications Commission is expected to vote Thursday to open up spectrum for wireless medical devices, raising the possibility of easier hospital-patient monitoring, fewer tubes in emergency rooms, and more remote monitoring at home.
In a move that has investors scratching their heads and consumer advocates voicing concern, a Southern California medical group responsible for nearly 700,000 patients in three states has been acquired by a company that runs dialysis clinics.
Half the people who buy their own health insurance, rather than depend on an employer, are in plans that have fewer benefits than what the U.S. health-care law will require beginning in 2014, a study found.
Royal Philips Electronics NV dropped the most in three weeks in Amsterdam after Chief Executive Officer Frans van Houten signaled the outlook for health-care equipment for 2013 has been clouded by Europe’s debt crisis.
App shines light on mental health patients’ moods – A digital tool that prompts users to share their daily thoughts is helping to strengthen links between therapists and clients
The striking new hospital buildings built by Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Sanford Health in Sioux Falls, and Lurie Children’s Hospital, in Chicago exemplify patient-centric design on a big budget.
The new health care law is already transforming the way care is delivered, and the changes will continue regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on the mandate for most Americans to carry health insurance.
Employment-Based Health Coverage Is Waning
Congressional Republicans are divided over what to do if the Supreme Court strikes down all or part of the health-care overhaul next month.
A new study finds that patients’ opinions of the care they receive can be quite different from the actual quality of the medical care. More alarming is that opinions and experiences vary greatly by race.
Romney Is About to Make Bush’s Health-Care Blunder
A Long View on Health Care: Think Like an Investor
Although the code set change is intended to be revenue neutral, ICD-10 includes more than 155,000 codes, a significant expansion from the current 17,000 codes in ICD-9. The transition touches nearly every member of a hospital or health system
The University of Notre Dame, the Archdiocese of New York and 41 other Roman Catholic institutions sued the Obama administration in federal court Monday, the latest push against a requirement in the health-care-overhaul law that employers cover contraception in workers’ health plans.
Tax credits in President Obama’s healthcare law aren’t big enough to prompt small businesses to start offering healthcare benefits, the Government Accountability Office said Monday.
Trained Interpreters For Patients With Limited English Can Help Avoid Medical Mishaps
New figures from Surescripts reveal that at the end of 2011, 58% (or 317,000) of office-based physicians were using e-prescribing tools to fill prescriptions, versus only 36% (190,000) in 2010.
DaVita, an operator of kidney dialysis clinics throughout the United States, agreed on Monday to buy HealthCare Partners, which runs medical groups in several states, for $4.4 billion.
Nearly one in four American adolescents may be on the verge of developing Type 2 diabetes
Data trove – previously confidential information, scrubbed of identifying details, is being provided by three of the nation’s largest insurance companies whose combined customers account for about 20 percent of Americans under age 65.
Higher prices charged by hospitals, outpatient centers and other providers drove up health care spending at double the rate of inflation during the economic downturn– even as patients consumed less medical care overall
A $6.4 billion effort to speed U.S. reviews of new drugs and medical devices is a step closer to law.
The percentage of U.S. adults who are obese appears to have plateaued.
As the federal government pumps billions of bonus dollars into private Medicare health plans to encourage better care, the quality rating system used to award the bonuses is coming under increasing fire.
If the Supreme Court strikes down the law as unconstitutional, according to Kaiser, the roughly 16 million low-income adults that the Medicaid expansion would help would likely remain uninsured.
Doctors ditching the prescription pad as more than a third of prescriptions now are electronic
Embattled Hospital Debt Collector Taps Politicians For Defense
Nearly 62,000 ‘uninsurable’ patients could lose coverage if the health care law is overturned
The Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday announced the award of $181 million in new grants to help states establish health insurance exchanges.
Today many hospitals are on Twitter, but only some are using the network to its full marketing potential and gaining measurable results.
EHR use was not associated with better adherence to care guidelines or a more rapid improvement in adherence.
The Obama administration forged ahead with healthcare reforms on Wednesday, announcing a November 16 deadline for state governments to submit proposals showing how they intend to operate health insurance exchanges in 2014.
Just months after a consulting firm swept into the Fairview system with a new approach to collecting money from patients, hospital employees were expressing alarm and frustration, records show.
Aetna Inc. is developing commercial ACO and ACO-like relationships with several providers. The company has 10 agreements in place and expects to have a total of 20 under contract by the end of 2012
The national annual cost of medical care for a typical family of four with PPO coverage has edged up over $20,000 for the first time, according to the actuarial and consulting firm, Milliman.
While Supreme Court watchers focus on the controversial insurance requirement in President Barack Obama’s healthcare law, lesser known is that the court’s ruling next month will also decide the fate of billions of dollars in new taxes.
Alliance Health Networks, a social networking company serving consumers and the healthcare industry, has acquired Medify, a provider of data-driven treatment information
Piramal Healthcare Ltd. said Wednesday it will acquire U.S.-based health-information manager Decision Resources Group for about $635 million, the second recent overseas buy by the Indian company that is looking to invest its huge cash pile.
Accretive Health was subject of a scathing report in April from Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson is convening national policy leaders to set standards for how hospitals should inform patients about the money they owe for health care.
As hospitals digitize patient records and amass huge amounts of data, many are relying on companies such as Microsoft, SAS Institute Inc., International Business Machines Corp. and Oracle Corp., whose data-mining technologies can help them detect patterns and improve medical care.
Australia’s top pathology and radiology group, has agreed to buy some pathology assets from private equity-owned Healthscope for A$100 million ($100 million), in what could be a test for the competition watchdog
Health policy experts anticipate that the wave of new insurance subscribers will lead to a spike in demand for medical services. Nurse practitioners are rolling out a campaign this week to explain what, exactly, nurse practitioners do — and why patients should trust them with their medical needs.
Three in four healthcare organizations had to find temporary physicians at some point in the last 12 months because they couldn’t find permanent physicians, survey data shows.
Florida’s major health insurer has joined forces with two South Florida healthcare providers to create a specialty accountable care organization that will focus on oncology services.
Health insurers will gain $1 trillion in new revenue over the next eight years under the 2010 health- care law, assuming it’s upheld by the Supreme Court, according to a Bloomberg Government study.
Computer-based clinical decision-support systems offer great opportunities to improve care and reduce costs, but healthcare leaders have to remember who’s ultimately in charge: the human operating the computer.
As U.S. argues over health care, nations embrace global coverage – Many political leaders around the world also have concluded that creating a system of universal health care is crucial to remaining competitive and sustaining economic growth.
Towers Watson to Acquire Extend Health in Move to Expand Retiree Benefit Services
In response to Franken query, billing firm again denies pressuring patients
Health-insurance companies must tell customers who get a premium rebate this summer that the check is the result of the Obama administration’s health-care law, according to federal guidelines released Friday.
Meaningful Use Quality Measures May Be Meaningless - The problem is that many of these measures were endorsed in settings that used hand-written notes in medical records. Now those notes must be adapted for use by EHR systems – the transition has been bumpy.
Christie Vetoes Health Insurance Exchange
Controversy – CMS Cuts Red Tape, Providers to Save $5B
Alere, the maker of medical diagnostics equipment received a subpoena from the Department of Health and Human Services related to quality testing and performance characteristics on Alere Triage products.
The Medicare data can pinpoint differences between hospitals wherever they might be — across the country from one another or right next door. If Medicare’s calculations are right, there may be a little bit of McAllen in a lot of places.
Unintended Consequence for Dialysis Patients as Drug Rule Changes
More than 2,600 U.S. drug stores, or 4 percent of all retail pharmacies, may have suspicious or excessive billing to Medicare, government investigators said.
The Affordable Care Act includes a 2.3% excise tax on medical devices that will take effect at the beginning of 2013.
There is fierce plastic surgery competition between hospitals and physician-run outpatient centers, with the debate focusing on safety.
The government has identified hundreds of hospitals whose Medicare patients are incurring especially high bills, a first step toward using bonuses and penalties to encourage more efficient health care nationwide.
United Healthcare makes its pitch to be solid provider in region steeped in uncertainty
Primary care providers, some subspecialist physicians, and nurse practitioners who treat Medicaid patients would be paid at Medicare rates–in some cases up to nearly three times the amount that Medicaid pays–under a proposed rule
Employee benefit administrator WageWorks made the greatest gain, but only after cutting its price. The stock closed at $12.60 on the New York Stock Exchange, up 40% from its initial public offering price of $9
Primary care doctors treating Medicaid patients to get pay boost under Obama’s health care law
GSK Makes Hostile Human Genome Sciences Bid
More than 270 interested parties filed public comments regarding the Meaningful Use Stage 2 proposed rules, but it is a few paragraphs in the 68-page comment letter from the American Hospital Association (AHA) that has drawn the attention and ire of patient and consumer advocate groups.
The amount you and your spouse may need to cover health expenses in retirement climbed 4% from last year to $240,000, according to a new estimate by Fidelity Investments.
Healthways is broadening its business model as it prepares for the loss of its Cigna contract, which over the course of the 14-year relationship grew to represent about 20% of Healthways’ annual revenue.
NowClinic, which started in 2010 and has expanded into 22 states, is part of the explosion of Web- and telephone-based medical services that experts say are transforming the delivery of primary health care
Obesity rates largely leveled off in the U.S. a decade ago, suggesting the worst might have been over. But about one-third of Americans are still obese, and a new study out Monday predicts that percentage will climb to 42% by 2030.
A study in the May edition of Health Affairs finds that hospitals’ power to win steep payment increases — and insurers’ relative inability to resist — varies quite a bit from one market to another.
The Food and Drug Administration is weighing policy changes that could make some of America’s most commonly used medications. The proposal would make accessing drugs significantly easier — and, in the eyes of some, perhaps make doctors less necessary.
What if how much you paid for a drug was based on how much it might help you, instead of the sticker price? Some big employers are already taking this tack, known as value-based insurance design, by lowering copayments for medicines to manage chronic conditions like diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure.
In 2010, some 21% of adults under the age of 65 told a government survey that they had an unmet health-care need, 20% said they hadn’t been able to get into a doctor’s office and 39% said they hadn’t had a dental visit.
Medicare Covers In-Home Care
Overall, there were 13.8 million cosmetic procedures in 2011, up 5% since 2010, and 5.5 million reconstructive plastic surgeries in 2011, up 5% over 2010. Hospitals that have offered a wide range of multidisciplinary programs related to cosmetic as well as medical procedures are seeing increased patient load
Discrepancies on Medical Bills Can Leave a Credit Stain
The latest proposed rules for how federal payers would reimburse hospitals in years to come call for important changes in the way quality is measured. But you wouldn’t know it unless you dug through the 1,313-page proposal for Inpatient Prospective Payment System rules.
Denmark, England and Scotland have been pioneers in the use of electronic communication in and across the health and social care sectors.
The current generation of American children may be the first not to live as long as their parents. Much of this projection is linked to the increase in obesity and health conditions.
Disruptions seen for Medicare provider payments if Supreme Court strikes down health care law
BenefitMall and CompuPay have merged through an equity financing led by Austin Ventures and including HarbourVest Partners. The merger of BenefitMall and CompuPay will create a national provider of employee benefit and payroll solutions.
Researchers found an astonishing 37 errors for every 100 paper prescriptions, versus around 7 per 100 for those who used e-prescribing software.
Royal DSM (DSM) NA agreed to buy U.S.-based Kensey Nash (KNSY) for $360 million in cash to drive expansion in the market for medical devices and materials engineered from proteins and synthetic polymers.
The Obama administration has tentatively agreed to chip in $1.9 billion over five years Oregon. The Oregon plan would create “coordinated care organizations” to manage all mental, physical and dental care for 600,000 low-income patients on the Oregon Health Plan, the state’s Medicaid program.
Omnicell, Inc., a leading provider of medication and supply management solutions to healthcare systems, today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire MTS Medication Technologies, Inc., a worldwide provider of medication adherence packaging systems
The new health law faces conflicting dangers: either it won’t be strong enough to upend entrenched incentives or it will be so successful it will prove too politically disruptive to survive.
President Obama’s healthcare law gives the country’s biggest businesses a strong incentive to quit offering healthcare benefits, House Republicans said Tuesday.
Federal regulators are now scrutinizing whether small companies with relatively healthy employees will pull out of the group health insurance market by self-insuring—meaning the companies take on the risk of paying for employees’ medical care.
United States authorities have charged 107 people, including doctors and nurses, for trying to defraud the federal Medicare health care program for the elderly and disabled of about $452 million
ConvaTec, a world-leading developer and marketer of innovative medical technologies for community and hospital care today announced that it has acquired AbViser Medical, LLC, a Salt Lake City, UT-based company that specializes in products for the critical care marketplace.
TeamHealth Holdings Inc. today announced the acquisition of the operations of The Exigence Group (“Exigence”) and its related entities.
More than 80 percent of hospitals have yet to achieve the requirements for the first stage of a $14.6 billion U.S. program to encourage doctors to adopt electronic medical records, the industry’s largest trade group said.
Castlight Health, a company aiming to bring more transparency to the costs of various medical procedures, has secured one of the largest funding rounds on record for a health-related software company
Accretive Health Asks Court to Toss State of Minnesota Suit
Study: Obesity adds $190 billion in health costs
Productivity in healthcare, in the sense of wringing out incremental savings in labor, has lagged far behind the rest of business largely because competitive pressures present in other industries simply didn’t exist in healthcare.
The growth of health spending has slowed substantially in the last few years, surprising experts and offering some fuel for optimism about the federal government’s long-term fiscal performance.
Vita Advisors, LLC is a research-based strategic advisory firm serving the health care industry.
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