Quality and Safety
According to a HealthLeaders Media report released last week, nearly half (46 percent) of healthcare leaders around the country have emergency departments that are overcrowded. Furthermore, 51 percent of those respondents also said that they are very concerned that the overcrowding issue will jeopardize patient safety.
With incidents of data breaches on the rise in recent years, cyber insurance is growing in popularity as a way of mitigating risk.
According to a recent report done by the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., California could save $3.6 million a year by reducing the prevalence of chronic conditions, like diabetes and heart conditions, by just 1 percent.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is taking new steps towards reducing unnecessary and obsolete regulations on U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers. HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebellius announced on Thursday the steps will save nearly $1.1 billion across the healthcare system in the first year and more than $5 billion over five years.
In a move that anticipates the increase in the number of people insured through state Medicaid programs as a result of the Affordable Care Act, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced yesterday a two-year, $11 billion program that will help states bring Medicaid payments for primary care services in line with those paid by Medicare.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the availability of $75 million in funding for the construction and renovation of school-based health centers.
Two-thirds of adults and one-third of children are overweight or obese in the U.S., resulting in an annual cost of $190.2 billion for treating weight-related illness, according to the Institute of Medicine, which released a report Tuesday offering recommendations for combatting the problem.
According to a new study released from The Commonwealth Fund, patients in the U.S. do not receive notably exceptional care compared with 13 other industrialized countries, despite health costs averaging one-third to two-thirds more than the other advanced countries.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Tuesday the first batch of organizations receiving Health Care Innovation awards, a program created by the Affordable Care Act. The awards total $122.6 million and will support 26 innovative projects nationwide that will save money, deliver high quality medical care and enhance the healthcare workforce.
A new study from Rand Corp. published in the May edition of Health Affairs indicates that consumer-directed health plans could save $57 billion annually if they grew to comprise 50 percent of all employer-sponsored health insurance in the U.S.