Reimbursement

The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) announced Thursday its definition of high-performing health systems. Leaders of the trade association said they issued the definition to educate legislators and the public about the need for meaningful change to improve patient care.

The number of Medicare Advantage plans being offered is expected to increase next year, along with enrollment, which is a recipe for growth, according to an Avalere Health report.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has discovered errors in its initial calculations in August. As a result, 1,422 hospitals with comparatively high readmission rates will lose slightly more money than they were expecting, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of the revised penalties. Fifty-five hospitals will lose less than were previously told.

Blue Shield of California and health technology integrator NantHealth announced Tuesday they will co-develop a clinic-based "continuous learning center" (CLC) that will leverage supercomputing systems, high-speed, secure-fiber networks and fact-based genomic data systems, which will allow Blue Shield's ACO partners to provide personalized, molecular-based medicine.

Minnesota gets more grant money, 70 HIX questions from state lawmaker; Nebraska and Hawaii choose minimum benefit levels; and private exchanges on the rise in this week's HIX Digest.

A collaboration between NantHealth and Blue Shield of California announced Tuesday will see the two organizations develop a clinic-based "continuous learning center" (CLC) that will leverage supercomputing systems, high-speed, secure-fiber networks and fact-based genomic data systems, which will allow providers to provide personalized, molecular-based medicine.

One of California's largest health insurers has agreed to pay a settlement sum for an alleged data breach that compromised the personal health information of 33,756 of its members.

West Penn Allegheny Health System announced last Friday that it is canceling the $475 million affiliation agreement with Highmark Inc. over demands by the region's dominant insurer that the health system enter bankruptcy proceedings in order to move forward with the deal.

Saying insurer Highmark Inc. has breached their $475 million affiliation agreement, West Penn Allegheny Health System on Friday announced that it was walking away from the deal and would be "exploring new options for its future direction."

New research suggests Arizona would save money with Medicaid expansion New research from the Grand Canyon Institute suggests that Arizona would save money and create thousands of jobs if it chooses to expand its Medicaid program under the program set forth by the federal government in the Affordable Care Act.