Healthcare Finance Staff
Interview with Russ Rudish, Vice Chairman and Health Care Providers Sector Leader, Deloitte & Touche, LLP (New York)
Commentary by Scott MacKenzie, CEO of Passport Health Communications in Franklin, Tenn.
Commentary By Mike Alkire, president of Premier Purchasing Partners
Compared to other stakeholders in the healthcare ecosystem, payers are late adopters of Health 2.0 technology.
While many payers are beginning to invest, a panel at the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco in October demonstrated how they are leading the pack.
Kaiser Permanente's electronic health record system is well known in the industry. The healthcare organization is putting the finishing touches to its EHR throughout the enterprise, said Christopher Ohman, senior vice president of health plan operations outside California for Kaiser.
In a move to drive more transparency in the healthcare insurance market, the Oregon legislature has mandated health plans to provide the cost of 35 different treatments to consumers.
PacificSource has delivered nearly 1,000 estimates for its members since it deployed TriZetto's Treatment Cost Navigator in July, said CIO Erick Doolan.
Although healthcare reform dominates the payer world, payers need to start working on a game plan for the major transition to ICD-10, industry consultants said.
"The biggest mistake payers can make is not addressing the impact assessment quickly," said Pamela Ruebelmann, vice president of healthcare solutions for HighPoint Solutions.
An assessment, which provides a full understanding of all the impacted components of people, process and technology, will help payers develop a multi-year, organization-wide roadmap, she said.
In an effort to boost healthcare delivery, physicians at Children's Hospital Boston are partnering with Massachusetts' major health plans to develop new technologies and integrated care models.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has issued an interim final rule to strengthen enforcement and increase penalties for violations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, known as HIPAA.
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which was enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, modified the penalties that the HHS could impose for violations of the HIPAA rules.
Key changes to physician quality reporting and e-prescribing incentives are being proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.
A group of healthcare and consumer organizations and companies has released five policy recommendations designed to promote better medication adherence, with potential savings of as much as $300 billion a year.