Diana Manos
Gaining health IT incentives, accountable care and new payment models are at the top of healthcare executives' priority lists for the coming year-and-a-half, according to a new survey.
Three federal agencies have combined to announce new regulations that would allow patients to appeal health plan denials and "help support and protect consumers and help end some of the worst insurance company abuses."
Federal officials responsible for writing the meaningful use rule defended it Tuesday before a wary Congressional panel who had questions for most every facet of the rule.
Fifty-two senators have pressed the federal government to prevent a 2.9 percent Medicare cut to hospitals in the proposed fiscal year 2011 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) regulation.
Attorney General Eric Holder has announced "the largest federal healthcare fraud takedown in the nation's history," involving 94 people in four cities, charged in alleged schemes to submit more than $251 million in false Medicare claims.
Federal officials released the final rule on meaningful use Tuesday, making it easier for providers to qualify for funding for the adoption of electronic health records.
After a series of fitful stops and starts, Congress passed measures in late June to delay a 21 percent Medicare physician payment cut that was scheduled to take place July 1.
Stuart Guterman, assistant vice president and director of the Program on Payment System Reform at the Commonwealth Fund, spoke about "Medicare's evolution” at the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s recent ANI conference in Las Vegas.
At the Healthcare Financial Management Association’s ANI conference held June 20-23 in Las Vegas, opinion varied on the financial outlook for healthcare providers in the post-healthcare reform era.
Accountable Care Organizations - or ACOs - may not ultimately keep that name, but experts say the concept of organizing providers and payers into a network striving for higher quality and more efficient care is destined to become a reality fairly soon.