News
In Massachusetts, the expansion of Partners HealthCare is offering a fractious case study of integration and health reform and begs the question: how big is too big?
United Healthcare's shopping spree continues, as it acquires a Texas company with practice management, revenue cycle, physician referral management and other ambulatory-focused technology.
After months fraught with website glitches and widespread industry opposition, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has made public Open Payments, its "new system of records" detailing physicians' receipt of payment and gifts from pharmaceutical companies and other third-party business associates.
On the face of it, the industry is making great strides toward adopting value-oriented payment models, but the question of whether or not the industry is also reducing costs and improving care quality remains unanswered.
The traditional health insurance business model is on the verge of a cataclysmic shift toward individual consumers. While that will require moving away from the old IT running within many payers, it also makes now a great time for reinvention, venture capitalists argue, if not the only opportunity.
Rural, critical access hospitals are being left out of some of the biggest shifts in American healthcare initiated by the ACA, leaving some rural healthcare leaders worried about being marginalized and that they could be left behind as reforms spread.
Health insurer spending on treatment for painkiller dependence is on the rise, and proving to be one of several tools needed to curb the epidemic of opioid addiction.
Health insurers are betting on value-based payments, broadly defined, but providers still seem skittish.
Don't rule out chaos for next year's ICD-10 deadline, or maybe plan on it, if the latest readiness research is any indication.
Rethinking how it acquires information technologies seems to be giving one insurer an edge, letting it eke out a "trifecta" of lower costs, fewer unhappy customers, and increased revenue.