Quality and Safety

While payers across the country have launched a host of different forms of payment initiatives like ACOs and patient-centered medical homes, designed around some form of risk sharing, Washington-based Premera Blue Cross has found success via its unique payment model it calls Global Outcomes Contracting.

Data breaches are costly and can do great damage to a healthcare organization's reputation. Here are 10 of the largest data breaches in 2012... so far.

One of the government's goals is to align its priorities with the private sector, including the development of accountable care organizations, said Marilyn Tavenner, acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, in a keynote address Thursday at the Third National ACO Summit in Washington, D.C.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced yesterday 45 commercial, state and federal insurers who will participate in the Comprehensive Primary Care (CPC) initiative, an effort to improve public health via an emphasis on primary care.

Last week, a number of major national hospital organizations, such as the American Hospital Association (AHA), lent their support to the recently updated Statement of Principles and Guidelines on practices that hospitals should follow in regards to billing and collection, which incorporate patient-friendly billing practices.

Value-based purchasing (VBP) is gaining favor over the conventional fee-for-service model with many healthcare leaders, according to a Forbes Insight study released Tuesday.

In a collaborative effort between CEOs and senior executives from 11 leading hospitals and health systems across the country, a comprehensive checklist to promote high-value healthcare at reduced costs has recently been developed.

The obesity epidemic in the U.S. will eventually bankrupt the nation if left unchecked, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center, which held a webcast Tuesday to outline its recommendations for curbing the crisis.

An analysis of hospices active in Medicare between 1999 and 2009 published in the June issue of Health Affairs is an attempt to shed some light on the degree of the changes transforming the industry and to point the industry in the direction it should be focusing on.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has announced a partnership with providers, care givers and patients aimed at improving the care and use of antipsychotic medications for patients in nursing homes.