Mary Mosquera

President Barack Obama re-nominated Marilyn Tavenner on Thursday to be permanent administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. She has been serving as acting administrator since December 2011, when Donald Berwick, MD, stepped down.

The Cleveland Clinic and VHA have formed a joint venture that the companies say will transform the traditional group purchasing approach.

Hennepin County, Minnesota, is getting better outcomes with lower costs in a high-cost segment of its Medicaid population by being flexible and more targeted in meeting the needs of these patients learned an audience at the National Health Policy Conference Tuesday.

Leaders of healthcare policy encouraged the industry to speed up the rate of change during a keynote address at the National Health Policy Conference Monday in Washington, D.C.

Despite the fact that most discussions about health information exchanges focus on technology, the real force that will drive them forward is a solid return on investment for healthcare providers, said a group of experts at a joint hearing of the federal advisory Health IT Policy and Standards committees on Jan. 29.

A proposed rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released January 14, outlines further details about the standards and systems for states' health insurance exchanges, Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Programs (CHIP).

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission intensified its call to repeal the SGR (sustainable growth rate) formula despite the legislative fix at year-end to avert the fiscal cliff and override the planned 26.5 percent cut to provider payments.

The Federal Communications Commission is providing $400 million in annual funds to enable thousands of new providers across the country to cut costs and improve care through the use of telehealth networks.

During December, CMS estimated that it paid 10,000 Medicare eligible physicians $175 million and 4,200 Medicaid physicians $80 million in EHR incentives. In December, 850 hospitals under the combined programs received $1 billion. Total payments since the program's inception have reached $10.3 billion.

States that expand their Medicaid program eligibility under the health reform law will incur only modestly higher state costs, about 3 percent, compared with significant increases in federal funds, according to a new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation.