Healthcare Finance Staff
Several key dates are looming as the Affordable Care Act continues its steady transition from legislation to law. There's Jan. 1, when 10 major provisions are slated to go live. Or Nov. 6 -- Election Day -- when the ACA's fate may be decided yet again.
Medicaid, neither as it exists today nor how it changes under the Affordable Care Act can assure access for the poor. Additionally, costs will not be affordable. Many providers will not see Medicaid recipients, chronic diseases will not be managed, and care will be provided in emergency rooms rather than in more appropriate locations. A radical "do over" may be the best solution.
Grand Junction, Colo., gets a lot of credit and attention as being home to pioneers in providing high-quality, low-cost healthcare. Healthcare leaders in the city of more than 58,000 are once again demonstrating their initiative.
A Government Accountability Office report issued late last week examining Medicare EHR incentive payments found only 16 percent of eligible hospitals and 9 percent of professionals received payments under the program in 2011.
If mobile medical apps are going to stand any chance of survival -- with physicians as well as consumers -- they'll have to be able to integrate with other devices and healthcare platforms, with electronic medical records and personal health records.
Upcoding. Overpayment. Out-and-out fraud. By some estimates, such vulnerability adds up to hundreds of billions of dollars of unnecessary healthcare spending each year. Yet healthcare still struggles to get at the root of fraud, waste and abuse (FWA). Why has this consistently been the case, when we all understand the imperative to find a solution?
The Obama Administration has launched what it calls a "ground-breaking partnership" among the federal government, state officials, leading private health insurance organizations, and other healthcare anti-fraud groups to prevent healthcare fraud.
Officials at Milwaukee, Wis.-based Aurora Health Care announced on Thursday they are forming an accountable care collaboration with Aetna, Inc., an effort aimed to provide employers with a new health plan created to improve employee health outcomes while controlling costs.
The Health Information Trust Alliance (HITRUST) on Tuesday launched the HITRUST Cyber Threat Analysis Service (C-TAS), which it bills as a collaborative platform for cyber defense specific to the healthcare industry.
I am heartened by the release of the Report of the State Budget Crisis Task Force, which highlights the fact that state finances are a mess and likely to get worse. The report identifies six big threats.