Reimbursement

A recent report from the Urban Institute highlighted the different roles that states have taken in development of health insurance exchanges where the federal government is heavily involved in operating them.

Fifty-five hospitals located in 21 states will pay a total of $34 million to settle allegations that they submitted false claims to Medicare for a spinal procedure that often can be performed on an outpatient basis without the need of costly hospital admissions.

The Obama administration announced late Tuesday that it has delayed until 2015 the healthcare reform law's requirement that businesses with more than 50 employees offer insurance, bending to criticism that requirements were burdensome and complex.

Less than 100 days are left before insurance exchanges go live, the Department of Health and Human Services is awarding $32 million in state grants to help find and enroll children in Medicaid and CHIP.

There is no doubt that social media has fundamentally changed the patient to patient and patient to provider communications relationship for the healthcare industry. The advent of transparent, real time social media communications platforms that allow open and honest dialogue presents a wealth of opportunities for the industry to capitalize on positive patient sentiment and build a trusted support community to actively engage with.

A group of retired Saginaw, Mich., city government workers are suing the city over efforts to consolidate their health benefits plans, and in some cases raise their out-of-pocket costs.

Proposed changes to the Medicare home health prospective payment system (HH PPS) will save the government approximately $290 million but the resulting cuts have home health agencies concerned.

UnitedHealthcare is exiting California's individual market, leaving about 8,000 customers who'll have to find new coverage by the end of the year.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia (BCBSGa), the state's largest insurer, will use SoloHealth's network of health and wellness consumer kiosks as a tool to engage its members where they shop and attract new members.

The Department of Health and Human Services has awarded a large contract for insurance exchange eligibility management to the U.K. firm Serco, although some Wall Street analysts expect the decision to be protested by American contractors.