Reimbursement

Today in the third of three hearings held by subcommittees of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Farzad Mostashari, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology reassured a congressional panel that health IT interoperability will take some dramatic leaps forward within the next two years.

Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton signed the state's health insurance exchange into law Wednesday after a legislative committee reconciled regulatory differences between a set of bills passed last week.

After several occasionally fractious public hearings on nonprofit tax exemptions, Pittsburgh Mayor Luke Ravenstahl is challenging the tax exempt status of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), the largest healthcare provider and employer in western Pennsylvania.

According to a new research study published in the March issue of Health Affairs, hospice enrollment saves money for Medicare and improves care quality for Medicare beneficiaries with a number of different lengths of services.

A recent survey of physicians in the U.S. by consulting company Deloitte shows that most are worried that the future of the medical profession may be in jeopardy and that the overall performance of the healthcare system in this country is "suboptimal."

A new report released Wednesday examines the health and well-being of people living in nearly every county in the United States, and finds that rates of premature deaths are at the lowest level in 20 years. Nevertheless, people in the unhealthiest counties are dying too early at more than twice the rates of those in the healthiest counties, according to the 2013 Health Rankings, published by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute.

Providers will drive the overhaul of the health system when they focus on the value of their care delivery to produce measurably better outcomes for patients.

State governors who say expanding the Medicaid program as spelled out in the Affordable Care Act is bad for business, may in fact be hurting business owners more by refusing to expand the insurance program for the poor.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittee on Communications and Technology, will launch a three-day series of hearings today to investigate issues involving mobile health -- particularly how to keep innovation flowing without over-regulating.

Any patient will tell you that a good bedside manner is just as important as solid medical credentials. As far as Dr. Hubert Fu is concerned, that extends as much to the practice of debt collection as it does to the practice of medicine and that's why he started Debt M.D.