News

With health systems scrambling to meet the October 1, 2013, ICD-10 implementation deadline, 3M Health Information Systems aims to help with staff training with its 3M ICD-10 Education Program.

With the prohibitive and rising cost of healthcare, there has never been a greater need for accountable care organizations, according to Mark McClellan, MD, former Administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

At a Monday session of the National Health IT and Delivery System Transformation Summit in Washington, Farzad Mostashari, MD, the national coordinator for health IT, made an eloquent and persuasive case for how meaningful use is not just an arbitrary set of requirements the government is asking of providers in exchange for incentives.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has informed state Medicaid directors of new smoking cessation services and reminded them that Medicaid programs are now required to fully cover those services for pregnant women.

Medical-surgical supply costs have become the second highest and fastest-growing operating expense for providers. In an effort to help curb spending, healthcare technology company GHX released a list at the HFMA-ANI conference in Orlando that aims to give providers greater control in this area.

U.S. Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and Greg Walden (R-Ore.) and 26 co-sponsors have introduced the Home Health Care Planning Improvement Act, which would allow physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinic nurse specialists and certified nurse midwives to order home health services for Medicare beneficiaries.

Rising healthcare costs, coupled with the current state of the economy, are prompting consumers to delay care, alter household spending and worry about their ability to pay for future healthcare costs, according to the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions.

The worldwide wound care market reached revenues of $14.9 billion, up nearly 6.2 percent in 2010, and can expect to grow nearly 7 percent this year, according to healthcare market research publisher Kalorama Information.

With the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services expected to release new guidance to states for establishing health insurance exchanges, both states and insurance carriers are moving forward gingerly with plans for 2014 when the exchanges are set to go live.

After implementing a hand washing "action plan," four hospitals in southwestern Virginia and eastern Tennessee reduced healthcare-acquired infection rates (HAIs) a collective 41 percent within 90 days, resulting in savings of $1.2 million in costs.