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Insurance carriers may charge an average 22.6 percent more for monthly premiums for individuals with a high body mass index when they purchase individual coverage. Smoking may also boost monthly premiums by an average 14 percent.
The Affordable Care Act gets its day in the Supreme Court, which will consider challenges to required insurance and expanded state Medicaid coverage.
Majorities of senior executives at hospitals, health systems and insurers are on the fence about their organizations' participation in the Medicare ACO program, according to a poll conducted by KPMG, alongside law firm Epstein Becker Green and The JHD Group.
High hospital readmission rates among Medicare patients are closely tied to higher overall hospital admission rates, according to a study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In 2010, the Veterans Administration launched the Blue Button, a standards format that allows simple exchange of a patient's personal health data. Initially designed for use by veterans, the idea has taken off in the private sector and has been supported by at least one major care provider overseas.
Letters of intent are due today from those interested in participating in the CMS Innovation Center's Health Care Innovation Challenge, which promises up to $1 billion for new ideas that improve care, shift incentives and help train a newly-focused healthcare workforce.
Three of the top six most significant data breaches of 2011 took place in the healthcare industry says the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, a nonprofit consumer protection and advocacy organization.
Pharmaceutical companies outsourced $36.6 billion in global research and development expenses to contract drug developers in 2011, up 6.6 percent from 2009, according to healthcare research firm Kalorama Information.
As President Barack Obama noted Thursday when introducing proposed regulations for minimum wage and overtime protection for home healthcare workers, the home healthcare workforce is the largest and fastest growing in the country. A new analysis finds that required training for some of these workers has gone largely unchanged in almost 25 years.
HHS said its approach is designed to make sure that consumers have quality and affordable coverage starting in 2014.