Reimbursement
Insurers, lobbyists and state regulators are weighing in on the federal government's proposed rules for market regulations and rate reviews under the Affordable Care Act, with some worried about the potential for price shocks and market distortions associated with new age rating rules and limitations on geographic price variation.
An analysis by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services show that for the third consecutive year, healthcare spending grew in 2011 by 3.9 percent or a total of $2.7 trillion, the lowest growth rate recorded since CMS began tracking healthcare spending in 1960.
The insurance and technology firm SeeChange Health landed $15 million in capital funding from two investment firms, the Psilos Group and Maverick Capital, who say they sense a shift in the employer-provided insurance market towards more focus on wellbeing and early intervention.
The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) has designated Booz Allen Hamilton as a Common Security Framework (CSF) Assessor.
In Reducing surgical complications: How to make it happen faster, I contrasted the way a hospital gets paid for rework with what happens in a manufacturing environment.
The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 became law on Jan. 2. Among its many provisions, the law postpones a scheduled 26.5 percent payment cut for physicians and other practitioners who treat Medicare patients, but payments to physicians may be temporarily held.
Even thought the recent fiscal cliff compromise brokered in the Senate will only patch two months, the legislation has permanently cut more than $1.4 billion in funding that was earmarked to help consumer operated and oriented (CO-OP) health plans become established in all 50 states.
If one person could be credited with first conceptualizing and promoting the idea of health insurance exchanges, it's probably Alain Enthoven, an 82-year-old economist and retired Stanford University business professor.
Now that Obamacare is likely here to stay, it's time to get serious about reforming key elements of our healthcare system. One area that deserves attention is the simplification of administrative processes that weigh on every transaction in healthcare. While it is not a new concept, it is one that is ready for prime time.
A federal judge in Atlanta has temporarily blocked Georgia's new prompt payment law for self-funded plans' third party administrators, siding with America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) in citing the preemption of federal law.