Healthcare Finance Staff
As a new generation ages into Medicare -- some with complex chronic conditions, others with a penchant for an active lifestyle and many expected to live into theirs 80s and 90s -- home healthcare models are changing.
President Barack Obama promoted the lower premiums consumers will gain from competition among health plans under the Affordable Care Act on Thursday at the White House.
Community Health Systems has reduced its second quarter earnings forecast and announced it has received another subpoena related to an ongoing Department of Justice investigation into the hospital operator's admissions practices.
Many insurance brokers have a dismal view of their industry's future viability, as economic trends and health reform appear to reduce their demand, a survey by Aflac has found.
Leaders from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Internal Revenue Service said at an occasionally fractious congressional hearing that the federal data hub will be mostly, if not fully, functioning by October, supporting information sharing for insurance and Medicaid applications.
One would think, given the title of the CMS press release, "Pioneer Accountable Care Organizations succeed in improving care, lowering costs," that the first year of the advanced ACO program was an across-the-board roaring success. But upon closer examination, the report card would appear to be rather checkered.
Medicare-covered physician self-referrals for anatomic pathology services -- diagnoses of human tissue -- more than doubled between 2004 and 2010, although new reimbursement policies may be stemming the tide, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.
Despite the one-year delay in ICD-10 compliance, many healthcare providers still do not understand the value of the new medical diagnostic codes that will be used beginning Oct. 1, 2014, according to a new survey from eHealth Initiative.
To remain competitive in a value-based care environment, health plans and ACO population managers must have visibility across a wide variety of care delivery settings. And, to effectively provide care for large populations, reduce the cost of that care and appropriately manage the risk associated with those patients, information must be captured from all caregivers, including ancillary providers such as rehabilitation specialists and mental health practitioners.
It's been one year since the inception of the Pioneer Accountable Care Organization Model, an alternative payment model initiative developed by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and already the ACOs have demonstrated marked success in providing better coordinated care to beneficiaries at lower costs.