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With no federal rules telling providers how they can spend their meaningful use incentive checks, hospitals and practices have their options wide open. While many are investing in more technology, that's only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
In the first year of new medical loss ratio (MLR) requirements, insurers spent less than 1 percent of premium revenue on rebates or quality improvements, according to an analysis by the Commonwealth Fund.
As the investigation into a fatal outbreak of fungal meningitis continues, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration proposed Friday that the agency gain new authority to regulate pharmacy compounding, including charging fees to fund an expanded safety framework.
In the first year of new medical loss ratio (MLR) requirements, insurers spent less than 1 percent of premium revenue on rebates or quality improvements, according to an analysis by the Commonwealth Fund.
Medicaid pays for more than 62 percent of all long-term care (LTC) costs in this country so programs to encourage more people to carry long-term care insurance may be needed to lessen the burden to the federal insurance program to the poor.
Accountable care organizations might be today's hope for grappling with healthcare costs and bumping up quality, but according to one expert, they are doomed to fail without one key element.
According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Managed Care (AJMC), researchers from America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) found that from 2008 to 2010 inpatient hospital prices increased by 8.2 percent each year with a wide variation in price levels and growth rates from state to state.
The payment of higher Medicare rates to physicians and hospitals in regions that have good health outcomes and lower costs, while reducing payment rates where there is lesser quality and higher costs will not drive individual providers to deliver care more efficiently reports the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
Healthcare is part of the service industry and increased competition amongst providers should lead to cost stabilization and advancements in healthcare services. Unfortunately, multiple barriers limit the healthcare industry from behaving like other service industries.
New research from the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation shows that hospitals can expect to pull in an additional $293.9 billion dollars between 2013 and 2022 if all states opt to expand Medicaid as outlined in the Affordable Care Act.