Reimbursement

While most states are waiting for the Supreme Court to decide the fate of the Affordable Care Act, two states – Vermont and Minnesota –  are already harnessing it to both establish health insurance exchanges and to drive healthcare delivery and payment reforms.

There's a snag in the proposed meaningful use Stage 2 rule, and it concerns whether doctors need to be good at typing. Depending on how the final requirements for Stage 2 play out, they might have to be.

Higher prices and greater use of technology appear to be the main factors driving the high rates of U.S. spending on healthcare, rather than greater use of physician and hospital services, according to a new study from the Commonwealth Fund. The study found the U.S. spends more on healthcare than 12 other industrialized countries, yet does not provide "notably superior" care.

In its Spring 2012 Economic Outlook report, Premier healthcare alliance reported that impending reimbursement reductions and uncertainty around the potential impact of health reform will likely lead to more conservative hospital capital budget expenditures for the year.

For service providers, including telephone companies, Internet and cable companies, cloud service providers, application and data storage providers, the healthcare market is heating up, according to experts at Cisco. 

With the help of a two-year task force effort with the Foundation for Health Coverage Education (FHCE), Sharp HealthCare in San Diego has saved $5 million from self-pay patient reimbursements at four of their busiest emergency departments.

In something of an election twist, Newt Gingrich called on conservatives to back Mitt Romney – even though he has yet to officially drop out of the race.

Trustees of the Medicare program today forecast increased financial troubles as a result of an aging population and rising health care costs, increasing the visibility of an issue that is already proving divisive in the 2012 presidential and Congressional campaigns.

The changes taking place in U.S. healthcare as a result of rapid healthcare IT adoption leave the nation's health IT chief  Farzad Mostashari optimistic - especially about improving quality, he told the audience at a meeting of the National Quality Forum Thursday, as he urged: "Keep our eyes on the prize."

The New York eHealth Collaborative, the New York City Investment Fund and the New York State Department of Health have launched a $4.2 million program to foster health IT innovation and create 1,500 new jobs in the state.