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A systematic review of the Massachusetts healthcare system found significant variations amongst hospitals and physicians that were not based on quality of care, according to a preliminary investigation conducted by the office of Attorney General Martha Coakley.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has posted a notice of final rule in the Jan. 28 Federal Register requiring each state to adopt a system to report certain adverse licensure actions taken against licensed healthcare practitioners to the Secretary of HHS, effective March 1.
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As hospitals start looking at how to break down the walls between acute and post-acute care, CMIOs would do well to consider the experience of Cleveland Clinic, a pioneer in building health IT bridges across the continuum of care.
The percentage of Medicare recipients in California will increase with the state’s elderly population, and is expected to more than double between 2000 and 2030, according to a report from California Healthcare Foundation.
The greatest threat to the U.S. budget stability in the coming decade is the growth of federal spending on healthcare, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which found that spending for Medicare and Medicaid, under current law, is expected to keep growing faster than the economy, reaching 6.6 percent of the gross domestic product by 2020 and potentially reaching 10 percent by 2035.
As part of the effort to make the meaningful use proposal process transparent, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published the ongoing comments submitted on the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT’s interim final rule and notice of proposed rulemaking on an open-access Web site.
Hospitals rated in the top 5 percent in the U.S. have a 29 percent lower risk-adjusted mortality rate and are improving their clinical quality at a faster pace than other hospitals, according to a study issued Jan. 26 by HealthGrades, a healthcare ratings organization.
Healthcare management company MEDecision will deliver its Alineo platform and Nexalign exchange service to Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care’s 750,000 Medicaid beneficiaries in Arkansas and Alabama.
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The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) proposed rules for incentive payments to eligible healthcare professionals and hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs that adopt and meaningfully use certified EHR technology is the result of unprecedented collaboration among leaders from all areas of healthcare. However, the 556-page document, released Dec. 30, 2009, is raising questions and concerns in the healthcare community--some of which were raised by two CIOs in a CMIO interview.
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Healthcare professionals are strongly urged to review and comment on the proposed meaningful use definitions and EHR interim final rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ONC), according to presenters of a Webinar, hosted by Washington D.C.-based eHealth Initiative on Jan. 8.
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Medical records provider MediConnect Global acquired health IT company PassportMD. The transaction cost for the personal health record (PHR) provider was undisclosed.
Bioheart has entered a distribution agreement with Restoration Medical, McRay Medical, Alamo Scientific and Morey Medical to initiate its home heart failure monitoring system, the BG 3370 Home Monitoring Service, to chronically ill patients throughout the U.S.
Reporting, product certification and implementation deadlines represent major concerns that could affect efforts to effectively implement EHRs under the recently proposed federal regulations, according to a statement by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME).
Current efforts to collect and publicly report data on discharge planning are unlikely to yield large reductions in unnecessary readmissions, according to study authors in the Dec. 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the Joint Committee on Taxation have estimated that the direct spending and revenue effects of enacting the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act incorporating the manager’s amendment would yield a net reduction in federal deficits of $132 billion between 2010 and 2019.
The internal affairs unit of the Detroit Police Department teamed up with the Detroit Department of Health and Wellness Promotion on Tuesday in the investigation of two recent incidents involving medical record theft that took place this fall from health programs within the city.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has placed limits on recovery audit contractors (RACs), regarding the number of medical and related claims record requests they may seek from hospitals and other providers during an audit in 2010.
President Barack Obama announced Wednesday that the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) will administer nearly $600 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act awards to support construction and health IT projects in community health centers around the U.S.
An “inappropriate definition" of meaningful use and “inefficient administration” of the Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs will lead to failed implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), resulting in the “needless squandering of resources and significant disruption” to the U.S. healthcare system, according to a letter written to David Blumenthal, MD, from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA).
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to pass H.R. 3961, the Medicare Physician Payment Act, 243-183, altering the way Medicare pays physicians and preventing a scheduled 21.2 percent rate decrease set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2010.
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Patients checking into New York-Presbyterian (NYP) Hospital can create an account that enables them to view their health data and have access to it wherever and whenever they need it.
The progress toward defining meaningful use has been impressive, but the timeline may be too compressed for many, said Steven Stack, MD, member of the board of trustees at the American Medical Association (AMA), last week, during the eHealth Initiative's second Webinar on meaningful use. “Also, to digitize 20 percent of the U.S. economy in a three- to five-year period, there’s not enough workforce to do that,” Stack said.
E-prescribing could help improve coordination of patient care, although barriers including cost and lack of standards need to be worked out, said speakers at a Webinar hosted by the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit eHealth Initiative.
The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) proposed rules for incentive payments to eligible healthcare professionals and hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs that adopt and meaningfully use certified EHR technology is the result of unprecedented collaboration among leaders from all areas of healthcare. However, the 556-page document, released Dec. 30, 2009, is raising questions and concerns in the healthcare community--some of which were raised by two CIOs in a CMIO interview.
