Mary Mosquera

Healthcare Finance News talked to Debra Miller, director of health policy for the Council of State Governments, about the top five health policy issues states are focused on in 2014.

Many states are innovating the way they perform enrollment to be more efficient and effective, both in the way they do business and in updating technical systems, whether they are expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act or not.

A key component to making value-based payment models work is getting physicians on board.

A lot of attention has been paid to the percent of mostly healthy adults age 18 to 34 enrolled in the federal and state health insurance exchanges to date.

In a reversal of 30 years' past practice, Medicare may start to disclose what it pays individual physicians for its services to seniors.

Medical costs in commercial plans slowed between August 2012 and August 2013, according to the S&P Healthcare Claims Indices.

Physicians may be more willing to accept policy changes that improve access to care and reduce costs if they can obtain some relief from malpractice liability, suggested the researchers of an article published in the January issue of Health Affairs.

When discussing solutions to the problem of primary care shortages, nurse practitioners and physician assistants are top of mind. A law that took effect the first of the year in California is putting the spotlight on another option: pharmacists.

National health spending in 2012 increased at a 3.7 percent rate to $2.8 trillion, the fourth consecutive year of slow growth, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in an analysis.

Hospitals and health systems will face ever more pressure in 2014 to establish the core skills needed to thrive in a rapidly changing healthcare market.