Reimbursement
Flexing its muscle with the healthcare buying power of 1.4 million employees, Wal-Mart last week announced it was contracting with six healthcare organizations nationwide to provide its health plan covered employees with no out-of-pocket costs for specific heart, spine and transplant surgeries.
Flexing its muscle with the healthcare buying power of 1.4 million employees, Walmart last week announced it was contracting with six healthcare organizations nationwide to provide its health plan-covered employees with no out-of-pocket costs for specific heart, spine and transplant surgeries.
Pennsylvania backs off co-payment plan; Texas investigates dental fraud; Alaska to study costs of Medicaid expansion in this week's Medicaid Digest.
State Medicaid directors are caught in the vice grip of competing interests driven by the looming election, lean state budgets, uncertainty about expansion caused by the Supreme Court health reform decision and the threat that Congress will cut the health program to help balance the federal budget.
Private health insurance exchanges are sprouting up and established ones want to grow, challenging state-based HIXs and expanding the retail insurance market.
The Medicare program could save billions in the next decade if care models are restructured says a newly released analysis commissioned by a nonprofit, national consortium of home healthcare organizations.
Susan Turney, MD, took the helm as president and CEO of the Medical Group Management Association one year ago on Oct. 12, succeeding William Jessee, MD, who retired after 12 years.
A number of states will partner with the federal government to get their health insurance exchanges up and running, at least initially, because they were unable -- for political or timing reasons -- to get authority or plans ready by an imminent deadline.
October 1 was the deadline for states to submit their essential health benefit plans to the Department of Health and Human Services -- a "soft deadline," the agency has said.
The findings of a new study underscore the positive correlation between high quality care in physician practices and the use of electronic health records (EHRs). Experts say the study is one of the first to examine and subsequently validate the clinical value of EHRs.