Reimbursement

 Nine of Western Pennsylvania's leading healthcare providers announced Thursday that they plan to form the region's first health information exchange (HIE).

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has taken its national 5010 testing days to the next level: a whole week – Aug. 22 to 26 – dedicated to testing in advance of the Jan. 1, 2012 compliance date.

Appalachian Regional Healthcare Inc. announced it is appealing a circuit court judge's dismissal of its lawsuit against the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources' Bureau for Medical Services over inadequate Medicaid reimbursement rates.

Appalachia Regional Healthcare Inc. announced it is appealing the late July decision by a circuit court judge to dismiss its lawsuit against the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources and DHHR's Bureau for Medical Services for inadequate reimbursement rates.

When all is said and done, the advancement of telehealth and mobile health in the United States will be accomplished through the percolation of innovation.

Aetna and post-acute care provider Genesis HealthCare announced last week an incentive-based contract aimed at rewarding Genesis for creating a coordinated care approach that reduces hospital readmissions for Aetna members.

Even as Oklahoma and Kansas recently said 'no thanks' to federal money aimed at helping them with the health information technology platform needed to create health insurance exchanges, the Departments of Health and Human Services and Treasury last week awarded $185M more to drive the creation of the exchanges across the country.

GAO is urging the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid beef up its approach to physician quality reporting, recommending CMS be more methodical in order to make the reports more reliable.

To help U.S. hospitals manage risk and take full advantage of the new healthcare payment models, Thomson Reuters has introduced a suite of payment reform tools.