Policy and Legislation

A new study suggests that hospitals with higher nurse staffing levels may have lower odds of being penalized for readmissions.

The HHS Office for Civil Rights has made a number of recent announcements regarding HIPAA Privacy Rule implementation.

UnityPoint Health is notifying 1,800 patients that their protected health records have been compromised after it was discovered that an employee of the health system's third party contractor gained unauthorized access to patient records.

For mainstream folks who aren’t health wonks or political junkies, it can be perplexing to try to understand why House Republicans are so eager to fight the Affordable Care Act that they are willing to shut down the government.

Bobbie Kite, a doctoral student at the University of Texas School of Public Health, sketches out a breakdown of hospital chargemaster lists, thier role the current U.S. healthcare model, and implications of the ACA.

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, vital sexual health services for men and women are now covered by insurance plans at no extra cost. The law also ends annual and lifetime dollar limits on such care.

As health insurance exchange enrollment begins today, the stakes are high for states with large uninsured populations that are declining to expand Medicaid. That political decision could be the difference between the status quo and improvements in healthcare access and sustainability.

For better or worse, war has provided the impetus for new medical technology. The latest wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have sent home many men and some women who suffered the loss of legs and arms.

As Congress has failed to pass legislation to continue funding the federal government, the Department of Health and Human Services has furloughed more than half of its employees. Medicare and Medicaid funding will survive, at least in the short term.

Much public discussion about the Affordable Care Act has focused on the health insurance exchanges. But a lot of work has gone on behind the scenes to support the exchanges, including the creation of thousands of new jobs.