July 19, 2013 David Raths
article
In August 2013, the California Department of Public Health will launch an immunization-messaging portal that it says will help providers qualify for meaningful use incentive payments. To qualify for meaningful use payments, immunization information will need to be submitted in HL7 format from a certified EHR.
July 19, 2013 John DeGaspari
news
A new report released by the Department of Health and Human Services finds premiums in the Health Insurance Marketplace will be nearly 20 percent lower in 2014 than previously expected.
July 16, 2013 Gabriel Perna
blog
The mystery regarding America's high healthcare prices is increasingly becoming public knowledge. It's not just the CMS releasing hospital outpatient data; it's organizations like Fair Health and a database that has information on 16 billion billed medical and dental services. Forget the snake---this is the year of transparency.
July 16, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal and Mark Hagland
news
Seven Pioneer accountable care organizations (ACOs) that did not produce savings in the first year of the Pioneer program will switch to another ACO model--the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP)--and two others in the Pioneer program will abandon Medicare accountable care models altogether, according to an announcement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
July 15, 2013 Reece Hirsch
article
On January 25, the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services published new regulations that dramatically extend the reach of federal healthcare privacy and security law to a vast array of companies that do business with the healthcare industry, including many HIT companies. The long-awaited final omnibus regulations (the “Final Rule”) amend the privacy, security, enforcement, and breach notification rules under the HIPAA law and the HITECH Act.
July 11, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
news
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan's patient-centered medical home program, the largest PCMH program in the U.S., saved an estimated $155 million from July 2008 to July 2011 based on calculations made from a recent analysis published in Health Services Research Journal.
July 11, 2013 Rajiv Leventhal
news
UnitedHealthcare, the Minnetonka, Minn.-based health insurer, has announced that it expects to more than double its number of accountable care health plan contracts in the next five years.
July 10, 2013 Mark Hagland
news
On July 9, leaders at the Charlotte-based Premier healthcare alliance submitted comments via letter to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, with regard to members of the U.S. House of Representatives now considering how to solve what is commonly known as the "SGR problem."
July 8, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
A new poll conducted by the American College of Physician Executives (ACPE) reveals that the trend of physician integration may drive up costs, rather than decrease it through increased efficiency and streamlining care. Thirty-two percent of the 459 organizations surveyed said the costs of delivering healthcare went up after a hospital or health system bought a group or practice.
July 4, 2013 Mark Hagland
news
The U.S. healthcare system could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year by improving medication adherence rates, a new report from CVS Caremark finds
July 3, 2013 Mark Hagland
news
The Obama administration changed course on July 2 on a key provision of the Affordable Care Act, when it announced a one-year delay, until 2015, in the ACA’s employer mandate requiring provision of health insurance to employees. Corporations had objected to the mandate, which will now take effect in January 2015.
July 2, 2013 Gabriel Perna
news
A group of five GOP Senators, led by Senator John Thune (R-N.D.), say they are still waiting a formal response from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on a whitepaper they wrote back in April outlining several concerns with implementation of the Health Information Technology and Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act and the efforts to deploy health IT.
