News

Nontraditional care delivery models, such as accountable care organizations (ACO), patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) and shared-savings programs, have been gaining traction in the healthcare arena, with more than half of physicians and other industry professionals now participating in these programs, according to new survey findings released Monday. 

Overall U.S. healthcare prices remained flat from April to May 2013, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Affordable Care Act has brought about financial uncertainty for many health systems, which makes it all the more important for those negotiating contracts with unions to move those negotiations out of the hands of the human resources department and into teams created for the purpose.

Patients are responsible for nearly one-quarter of their medical bill on average through the cost of co-pays, deductibles and co-insurance, according to the latest National Health Insurer Report Card from the American Medical Association (AMA).

National Coordinator for Health Information Technology Farzad Mostashari, MD, spoke with Healthcare IT News Senior Editor Diana Manos Monday at the HIMSS Media ICD-10 Forum in  National Harbor, Md.  With his typical candor and energy, Mostashari commented on several healthcare IT issues and about ICD-10 – the focus of the forum and the topic of the keynote talk he had delivered earlier in the day. Yes, he was wearing his signature bow tie.

The outlook for not-for-profit hospital credit ratings remains poor for the foreseeable future, according to an executive with Moody’s Investor's Service who spoke this week at the 2013 HFMA National Institute.

As most everyone in the healthcare industry knows, mergers, acquisitions and partnerships have been increasing, but the reasons behind this and the forms these partnerships take, are changing.

With so many reimbursement considerations to think about with the transition to ICD-10, such as reduced cash flow and an increase in denials and audits, the best defense for healthcare systems is to know what to expect and begin preparing for the changes now.

In a competitive healthcare marketplace like Dallas-Ft. Worth, it's essential that a physician practice tightly manage its revenue cycle. Texas Health Physicians Group is doing that by tracking five key financial metrics.

So-called "pay for delay" deals between patent-holding pharmaceutical firms and would-be generics makers can now be challenged on antitrust grounds, although they are not necessarily anti-competitive, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled.