Reimbursement
UnitedHealthcare announced Wednesday that the company will double its number of accountable care contracts over the next five years, representing more than $50 billion of reimbursements by 2017.
The integrated care model has been touted as being able to deliver better care for patients and lower costs and improve efficiencies for the healthcare system but a recent study of the model in the United Kingdom by RAND Europe reports lukewarm results.
The integrated care model has been touted as being able to deliver better care for patients and lower costs and improve efficiencies for the healthcare system. A recent study of the model in the United Kingdom by RAND Europe suggests that it does indeed provide benefits, but those benefits are most likely perceived by healthcare professionals rather than by their patients, and cost savings were minimal.
Insurer WellPoint will pay a $1.7 million fine to settle potential HIPAA violations that it left the names, Social Security numbers and other personal health information of more than 600,000 individuals accessible over the Internet, the Health and Human Services Department said late Thursday in a news release.
"Let's just make sure it's not a third-world experience," Henry Chao, CMS deputy CIO, said of the federal government's goal for the consumer experience in health insurance exchanges. Among the "young invincibles" needed for functioning exchange markets, though, the online experience may make or break their interest in buying insurance.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) 2014 proposed rules for the hospital outpatient prospective system (OPPS), released earlier this week, offer payment increases and "packaging" of services.
Several advocacy groups and professional societies are criticizing a tentative decision by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services not to cover a new Alzheimer's diagnostic tool in all but a few cases in clinical studies.
The Internal Revenue Service published guidance Tuesday for employers related to the one-year delay until 2015 in requiring information reporting about providing health coverage to their workers.
UnitedHealthcare announced Wednesday that the company will double its number of accountable care contracts over the next five years, representing more than $50 billion of reimbursements by 2017.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' 2014 proposed rules for the hospital outpatient prospective system, released earlier this week, offer payment increases and "packaging" of services.