Reimbursement
"Step number one, two, three, four, five and six is really getting the website fixed," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told both concerned and critical members of Senate Finance Committee, the birthplace of the Affordable Care Act, as Healthcare.gov's problems persisted five weeks after its go-live date.
A survey examining how U.S. hospitals are addressing CMS 30-day readmission penalties found that most facilities agree on what core strategies work the best for reducing preventable readmissions. Post-acute care coordination is near the top of the list.
On May 2, 1961, President John Kennedy set an astonishing challenge for the United States, declaring that by the end of the decade, the U.S. would send a man to the moon. In many ways, the Affordable Care Act is the health insurance industry's own space race, with the goal of insuring every citizen taking the place of, well, going to the moon.
Humana's third-quarter net income fell almost 14 percent, but the company's leaders are maintaining this year's earnings guidance and see revenue increasing in 2014.
Enrollments continue to trickle in. Health plans, with the kind of market share that would have to sign-up 100,000 to 200,000 people for the administration to hit its goal of 7 million people, are generally reporting they have enrolled only about 100 - 200 people over the first 35 days via Healthcare.gov.
One of California's largest health systems is paying $46 million to settle allegations of overcharging payers with obscured anesthesia billing practices. The state's insurance commissioner calls the agreement "groundbreaking."
Colorado's experiment with accountable care in Medicaid has led to a second year of savings, and other states are taking note.
One of California's largest health systems, Sutter Health, is paying $46 million to settle allegations of overcharging payers with obscured anesthesia billing practices.
More Medicare Advantage plans have earned four stars or higher in the CMS Star Ratings program for 2014, increasing to 43 percent from 27 percent of plans in 2013, an Avalere analysis has found.
Medicare has paid millions in claims for deceased beneficiaries and undocumented immigrants, a government investigation has found.