Healthcare Finance Staff
Leading financial analysts scoffed at the notion of a healthcare IT "bubble" that could slow the pace of mergers and acquisitions this year. Speaking on a panel called "Financing The Deal" at the Nashville Health Care Council, they predicted that 2012 M&A activity would be brisk, though not superheated.
Michael McKay, 32, of Saratoga Springs, N.Y.. pleaded guilty in district court on May 11 for forging physician's chart notes to make Medicare or private carrier claims qualify for reimbursements for bone growth stimulator medical devices.
Jeffrey Selwyn, an internist at New Pueblo Medicine in Tucson, Ariz., is 65, but he says he's nowhere near retiring. Unlike many docs his age who are throwing in the towel due to the increased pressures on physicians to use EHRs, Selwyn is excited. He wasn't always a fan, however.
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology is calling for public comment on proposals for rules of the road to govern the nationwide health information network (NwHIN).
In an effort to lower the number of out-of-network referrals for outpatient surgical procedures, Aetna has launched a program that will actively alert both members and their doctors if they are leaving the insurer's network for care and work to shift the referral to an in-network provider.
As it looks to maintain Medicaid member access to primary care doctors, HHS announced last week a two-year, $11 billion program that will help states bring Medicaid payments for primary care services in line with those paid by Medicare.
While some $560 million in federal health information exchange funding may soon run dry, changing reimbursement models mean market-driven growth will continue, says a new report on HIEs from Chilmark Research.
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) on Wednesday submitted comments on ICD-10 proposed rulemaking to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. CHIME urged HHS to remain committed to ICD-10, while calling the one-year delay an appropriate "middle ground" for all stakeholders.
AHIMA has said it before, and it is saying it again. Delaying ICD-10 deadlines is not a good idea.
Mobile health, or mHealth, is poised to explode over the next decade, says Chad Udell, managing director of Float Mobile Learning, a mobile learning consulting, strategy and research firm based in Morton, Illinois.