Quality and Safety
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a proposed rule on July 3 that most medical devices distributed in the United States carry a unique device identifier (UDI).
Over the past few years and as we move into the future, many rural and critical access hospitals throughout the country have continued to struggle when it comes to rising costs of care and decreased reimbursements, as well as the recruitment and retention of high-quality clinicians and staff, among other challenges.
Fraud remains a stubborn and growing problem for the U.S. healthcare industry, raising costs for patients and cutting sharply into margins for insurance payers. Of the more than $2.5 trillion spent on healthcare in the United States annually, some $60 billion to $250 billion is lost to fraud, waste and abuse, according to industry experts. Organized crime groups and a small minority of healthcare providers commit most healthcare fraud, reports the National Health Care Anti-Fraud Association.
As the acquisition of physician practices has once again become a hot topic, hospitals may be considering payment for certain intangible assets. For regulatory purposes, these transactions must remain consistent with the fair market value (FMV) standard under the Stark Law and Anti-Kickback Statute.
A recent Yale study of the care quality received at safety-net hospitals in metropolitan areas of the U.S., which provide care for the majority of uninsured, low-income and other vulnerable populations, found that the quality at these facilities is nearly the same compared to non-safety-net hospitals in the same areas.
The business of healthcare is complex and is often not clearly understood by the patient or even by the medical office staff. Here are five steps that medical practices should take to help patients understand medical bills and be better prepared to handle them.
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill Monday designed to control the state's healthcare costs. Included in the legislation is an overhaul of the medical liability system, which proponents say will decrease the cost of defensive medicine.
According to a recent study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, nurse burnout has been linked to higher rates of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), which therefore costs hospitals millions of additional dollars each year.
A trio of conservative health economists say that while the 2010 federal health law aims to slow health spending through programs such as value-based purchasing and bundled payments, it fails to fundamentally alter the healthcare financing system.
Managing multiple chronic conditions is still elusive for most patients, according to a Kaiser Permanente Colorado Institute for Health Research study that found only "fleeting" success for a minority of MCC patients.