Policy and Legislation
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights has released its guidance to help healthcare organizations handle ransomware attacks, including prevention methods, a detailed description of ransomware and advice on how to respond to a ransomware threat.
The number of travel-related cases is growing, and public health officials predict it is only a matter of time until the first locally transmitted case is confirmed. They are scrambling to prepare strategies to combat Zika's spread. But on Capitol Hill, efforts to approve emergency funding to support all of these initiatives are being held up by partisan disputes.
Oregon's Health Co-op went into state receivership by court petition on Monday, according to the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services, Division of Financial Regulation.
Trump's plan would allow health insurers to remove costlier benefits in exchange for less expensive premiums.
The measure preserving the State Health Insurance Assistance Program, known as SHIP, is part of a massive spending bill for federal health, education and labor programs, approved by the Republican majority of the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees those departments.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has proposed changes to how it pays doctors and other providers for primary care with a new focus on care management and behavioral health.
CMS is now calling for clinicians, hospitals, and critical access hospitals to use a 90-day EHR reporting period in 2016 - down from a full calendar year for returning participants in the government's EHR Incentive Program. They also proposed lowering the bar for achieving Stage 3 objectives, eliminating the Clinical Decision Support and Computerized Provider Order Entry objectives and measures for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals.
Proposal would eliminate any potential financial pressure clinicians may feel to over-prescribe pain medications, especially opioids.
HHS said consumers could buy fixed indemnity insurance thinking they were getting comprehensive coverage.
American Hospital Association-backed report says ignoring socioeconomic differences may create the appearance of quality issues where there are none.