Children’s hospitals ask Congress to save SCHIP
Last month, 35 regional coalitions led by children’s hospitals, Catholic hospitals and other healthcare organizations conducted simultaneous town hall meetings to highlight the success of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program and ask Congress to reauthorize it in 2007. SCHIP currently provides health coverage to 6 million children in the U.S. and is set to expire in September. “We must reauthorize SCHIP with funding that covers state shortfalls and removes barriers to enrollment,” said Lawrence A. McAndrews, president and CEO of the National Association of Children’s Hospitals.
Partners commits to connected health programs
Partners HealthCare is expanding its commitment to connected health technologies to help increase patient access to quality medical care. Through Partners Telemedicine, the organization has been leading efforts to create a patient-centered model of healthcare delivery, connecting patients to healthcare providers outside of the clinical setting and delivering care where and when it is needed. Partners Telemedicine also announced a name change, to the Partners Center for Connected Health, to better reflect the broad range of its work in telehealth, remote care and disease and lifestyle management programs under development at Partners.
CMS targets home health patient hospitalizations
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has launched a year-long campaign to reduce acute-care hospitalizations for home health patients, improve clinical outcomes and raise patient satisfaction. CMS is encouraging hospital-based and other home health agencies to participate in the Home Health Quality Improvement National Campaign by registering online. Best practices on reducing avoidable hospitalizations will be shared monthly for use by home health agencies.
Claimtrust acquires boston-based provider
Claimtrust Inc. is acquiring Revenue Enhancement Strategies Inc., a Boston-based provider of financial, administrative and clinical healthcare consulting for New England hospitals. Claimtrust, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., provides single-source software solutions for the hospital revenue cycle. “RES will help expand Claimtrust’s ability to help hospitals handle all aspects of their revenue cycle management with even more comprehensive solutions,” said Joe Ferro, Claimtrust’s president.