There’s a widespread belief among healthcare providers that we’re heading for Medicare payment changes—and perhaps reimbursement changes in the broader system—that will reward collaboration between hospitals and physicians. While the Senate Finance Committee—the epicenter of national reform legislation—has only suggested bundling of hospital and post-acute care payments, there are...
Health Care Industry Archive
June 2009
Healthcare Roundup: Nursing Upsurge, Medicaid Defended, Cleveland Clinic Outrages Patients, and More
Nurses Come in From The Cold - Because of the recession, nurses are returning to their profession, alleviating the nursing shortage. In 2007 and 2008, about 250,000 nurses entered the workforce, swelling its ranks by 18 percent. Apparently, much of this increase is due to nurses who went back to work because their spouses were laid off and/or lost benefits. About half of the returnees are over...
Ever since the government announced it would offer financial rewards of $44,000 to $64,000 to each physician who could show “meaningful use” of a qualified electronic health record, doctors have been wondering what meaningful use means. Today the Health IT Policy Committee, which advises the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, took a major step toward providing a definition of...
The leadership of the American Medical Association praised President Obama’s long, detailed speech on health care reform at the AMA Convention in Chicago. In a press conference held after the speech today, AMA President Nancy Nielsen, MD noted that the President had received a “warm reception” from the delegates. That’s not the sort of reaction one would expect toward a man who is...
President Obama has suggested $313 billion in additional savings that the government could use to fund health-care reform. Added to his earlier proposed “reserve fund” of $634 billion, the new cuts would theoretically produce nearly $950 billion in savings over 10 years. That’s close to the $1 trillion that the Administration expects reform to cost—although some observers say it might...
Nearly a year and a half after Microsoft launched its HealthVault personal health record platform, it cannot supply a list of the healthcare providers who are uploading clinical data to HealthVault, said Peter Neupert, corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Health Solutions Group, in a call-in conference with healthcare bloggers. That’s partly because many providers are uploading data...
Claims Delays at Anthem - WellPoint has admitted to problems in processing physician claims at its Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield subsidiary. The Indiana and Ohio medical associations complained to their state insurance departments about the delays, which have lasted several months in some cases. An Anthem spokesperson attributed the problems to the adoption of a new claims processing...
Until physicians change how they practice, “we’re just tinkering at the margin” of health care reform. That’s according to Steven Pearlstein, a business columnist for The Washington Post, who cites the fact that physicians’ decisions drive most health care spending. Referring to the recent New Yorker article by Atul Gawande about the overutilization of healthcare in McAllen, TX,...
A scandal unfolding in Canada should serve as an early warning for anyone concerned about how the U.S. government will spend the net $19.2 billion in federal stimulus funding earmarked for health IT. Ontario’s top health-IT official was fired over the weekend after reportedly handing out millions of dollars in no-bid consulting contracts, signing off on allegedly dubious expenses and...
California may take action against fraudulent “discount plans” that rip off consumers by promising them access to healthcare providers with whom they have no contractual arrangements. But there’s no indication that the state is going to do anything about “silent PPOs,” which are prevalent across the nation and cut deeply into some physicians’ revenues. California’s Department of...
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- Interest Groups Redouble Fight on Healthcare Reform
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