Policy and Legislation
Less than six weeks after announcing plans to explore a merger, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare and Tufts Health Plan announced they will not pursue the idea any further.
More than $1.3 billion in tobacco settlement funds have been diverted over the past six years from Pennsylvania's adultBasic health insurance program and other health programs to other uses, said state Auditor General Jack Wagner.
The National Quality Forum has endorsed 21 measures to be used in caring for long-term residents and short-term patients at nursing homes. These measures will be used in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ Nursing Home Compare, an online database used by consumers to compare more than 17,000 nursing homes nationwide.
Florida Judge Roger Vinson has granted a stay to his Jan. 31 ruling that called for halting the Affordable Care Act, pending the Obama Administration's "anticipated" appeal within seven days.
The Joint Commission is considering a new primary care home designation as an add-on to its ambulatory care accreditation program and is soliciting input on the additional requirements.
Roughly $48 billion of Medicare's $507 billion budget in 2010 went to fraudulent or improper payments, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.
Inpatient acute care hospital billing staff need to make sure medical documentation submitted demonstrates evidence of the clinical need for patients to be admitted and that it fully and accurately identifies any subsequent care provided during that stay.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has released a report showing that the Early Retiree Reinsurance Program, created by the Affordable Care Act, is reducing healthcare costs for early retirees.
An opinion piece published in February's edition of the New England Journal of Medicine calls for the creation of a national health policy curriculum for medical schools.
Conservatives are in a full court press these days telling us the answer to America’s out-of-control health care costs—and our fiscal crisis—is to move Medicare, Medicaid, and the tax code subsidy for private insurance to a defined contribution system.