Mary Mosquera
During a session on how health reform is reverberating at the state level during the National Health Policy Conference held earlier this month, attendees learned how one health system in Ohio is using the accountable care organization model to improve care and costs and expand its horizons.
A new user fee is bringing in the money to help speed up generic drug applications the Food and Drug Administration commissioner told attendees of the Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association's (GPhA) annual meeting last week.
Florida's GOP Gov. Rick Scott will adopt Medicaid expansion for three years while the federal government pays full freight, and then leave it to state lawmakers to re-authorize it.
Two percent cuts may not sound deep, but the sequester, scheduled to start March 1 unless Congress acts, will be painful, and has the healthcare industry worried.
Most employers have not studied or calculated the impact of the Affordable Care Act on overall employee benefit packages.
The overall rise in medication costs is slower than in previous years as more generic drugs have become available, according to an industry report.
Medicare patients can anticipate paying considerably less for their diabetes and other products starting in July when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expands its competitive bidding for durable medical equipment (DME) and mail-order program but the DME industry continues to point out problems with the program.
Despite improvements, Medicare has once again been placed on the Government Accountability Office's high-risk list -- a designation the program has held since 1990.
Possible cuts in Medicare funding for graduate medical education (GME) that could start as soon as next month come at a critical time when the industry is trying to find solutions to a physician shortage that promises to accelerate through 2020.
Electronic health records (EHRs) have to be usable and useful by physicians and integrate with hospitals' or practices' other systems to benefit providers or else the money spent on them is just wasted.