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Medicare patients can anticipate paying considerably less for their diabetes and other products starting in July when the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expands its competitive bidding for durable medical equipment (DME) and mail-order program but the DME industry continues to point out problems with the program.

A new study is adding fuel to the debate over the value of copay offset cards, used to defer a patient's copayment for prescription medications.

The earlier hospitals begin to plan and strategize for how they will handle the healthcare environment once health insurance exchanges are operational, the better, said Purva Rawal, senior manager of health reform at Avalere Health, during a webinar Thursday.

We hear a great deal about healthcare consolidation today. The truth is, it has been happening in earnest for two to three years already, and it isn't showing any signs of slowing down.

On Wednesday, New York Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced that his office recovered over $335 million for the state in 2012 that had been improperly claimed through fraud or abuse in the Medicaid system.

In a report released last week, the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System describes a set of three healthcare policies that could slow health spending by $2 trillion over 10 years by focusing on the way public and private purchasers pay for healthcare, enhancing consumers' choices of higher-value care and streamlining administrative procedures.

While only 17 percent of the working age U.S. population, adults with disabilities account for disproportionately high (almost 40 percent) emergency department visits, according to a recent study from National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers.

The American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 became law on Jan. 2. Among its many provisions, the law postpones a scheduled 26.5 percent payment cut for physicians and other practitioners who treat Medicare patients, but payments to physicians may be temporarily held.

With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) over the next few years there are going to be several new fees for both health insurers and employers sponsoring self-insured health plans that go into effect.

Bundled payment and payment reform in general are hot topics in healthcare circles, and will prove to be a challenge for many. Jay Sultan, thought leader for payment reform at TriZetto, a healthcare management solutions company, shared with Healthcare Finance News five key ideas for hospital leaders to consider in order to break barriers to successfully implement payment reform at their organizations.