Quality and Safety

Letters sent last Friday to House Ways and Means Committee chairs Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Wally Herger (R-Calif.) from the American Medical Association (AMA) and Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) suggest a number of different payment approaches aimed at a long-term solution to the current Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR).

Healthcare providers who offer extended payment terms to help patients meet rapidly increasing financial liabilities are exposing their organizations to a series of complex consumer credit compliance obligations due to increased regulations by federal and state agencies.

The stakes are high for the upcoming ICD-10 conversion and the consequences for organizations that don't properly prepare may be severe.

During testimony last week at the Oversight Subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee hearing, Irving, Texas-based VHA Inc., said that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Schedule H amendment, which regulates reporting for tax-exempt organizations, has overly burdensome requirements for non-profit hospitals.

All aspects of social media were addressed during the Connecting Healthcare + Social Media conference last week in New York, with one of the most pressing issues being how to see financial return from your social media efforts. Chris Boyer, director of digital marketing and communications at Inova, outlined five keys to get a solid ROI from your social media.

Nearly nine-of-ten members of the general public think the cost of healthcare in this country is a serious problem and two-thirds say the problem has gotten worse in the past five years according to a new poll by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), NPR and Harvard School of Public Health.

Opposition to the legalization of medicinal marijuana in the absence of scientific studies that demonstrate its safety and efficacy led the list of resolutions adopted by physicians of the Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) at the organization's annual meeting of its House of Delegates on May 19 in Boston.

Care managers take the time that physicians often don't have to get to know patients who have chronic and multiple conditions and require a lot of services. The use of care managers in this new Hudson Valley-based program is already showing improved results for readmissions.

The Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) announced Friday this year's winners of the MAP Award for High Performance in Revenue Cycle. Seventeen organizations received the honor.

According to two recent studies conducted by several researchers at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, there is a correlation between hospital readmission rates and how full the hospital was at the time of discharge. This suggests that many patients went home earlier than they should have.