Quality and Safety
Hospitals could see substantial savings by instituting environmentally-friendly practices in operating rooms, says a study published in the February issue of Archives of Surgery.
Horizon Healthcare Innovations, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, has teamed up with 63 physicians in New Jersey to launch a statewide PCMH. To help the process along, Horizon is funding population care coordinators to be embedded in physicians' offices.
As the legislature in Texas grapples with its budget, the Children's Hospital Association of Texas (CHAT), which represents seven, nonprofit hospitals, is warning lawmakers that cuts to Medicaid could have disastrous consequences for the children of the state.
High-quality hospitals deliver lower-cost care to trauma patients, according to a study published in the Annals of Surgery. The study found high-quality hospitals have death rates that are 34 percent lower, while spending nearly 22 percent less on trauma patient care than average-quality hospitals.
Maintaining positive operating margins and being transparent about clinical quality outcomes are key factors that help hospitals provide superior clinical quality, CEOs at HealthGrades 50 Best Hospitals for 2011 reported.
New efforts are needed to develop and refine quality-of-care and other performance measures that can assure new payment models will improve medical care without harming patients, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has fined Cignet Health of Prince George's County, Md., $4.3 million, in what officials say is the first civil money penalty (CMP) issued for a covered entity's violations of the HIPAA Privacy Rule.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Tuesday that 13 states have been awarded $45 million in new funds under the Affordable Care Act to assist Medicaid beneficiaries with moving out of institutions and into their own homes or other community settings.
The TriZetto Group, Inc., announced Tuesday that it has signed an agreement to acquire privately held Gateway EDI, a St. Louis-based healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM) company. Officials said the combination of the companies' platforms will benefit both payers and providers by delivering integrated end-to-end real-time payment information.
Kaiser Permanente has received the highest customer loyalty ranking in the health insurance sector, according to the Satmetrix 2011 Net Promoter industry rankings released Feb. 18.