Healthcare Finance Staff
After some stops and starts, at last the federal government has released the long-awaited proposal for Stage 2 of qualifying for the meaningful use of electronic health records incentives.
On the third day of the HIMSS12 conference in Las Vegas, Farzad Mostashari, MD, took to the stage in what ended up being a rousing address to a packed room of attendees. Addressing everything from the nation's progress in the past two years to the work still needing to be done, he touched on all aspects of what the industry had seen, is seeing, and will see in the years to come.
Here are seven key highlights from Mostashari's keynote speech.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska is challenging the state's decision to switch insurance companies for state employees to UnitedHealthcare - a decision worth $184 million annually.
The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) has called on the Department of Health and Human Services to "quickly and decisively" set a compliance date for ICD-10.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Thursday that consumers will soon begin receiving unprecedented information on the value of their health insurance coverage, and some will receive rebates from insurance companies that spend less than 80 percent of their premium dollars on healthcare.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that 2,000 hospitals and 41,000 physicians have received $3.1 billion in incentive payments for the meaningful use of certified electronic health records (EHRs).
Christine Eibner, an economist and director of the Comprehensive Assessment of Reform Efforts Microsimulation Modeling Initiative at the RAND Corporation in Arlington, Va, is the lead author of a study published in the February edition of the journal Health Affairs, which analyzed two rules -- allowing employers to self-insure or maintain grandfathered health insurance plans -- to avoid participating in health reform and how they might impact the future cost of health insurance.
The case for leapfrogging ICD-10 and holding out for ICD-11 just got a lot more curious. And though it's not here yet, when ICD-11 is ready, it will be something ICD-10 cannot: A 21st Century classification system.
The possibility of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services delaying ICD-10 sure did cause a ruckus on Tuesday. What began as CMS acting administrator Marilyn Tavenner telling attendees at an AMA meeting that CMS will re-examine the pace of ICD-10 implementation, turned into reports of the agency "signaling" a delay with plenty of physicians stating their support on the record.
Will CMS postpone the ICD-10 deadline? According to Marilyn Tavenner, acting CMS Administrator, it's possible.