Policy and Legislation
Many healthcare leaders around the country are agreeing that 2013 is going to be a challenging year for hospitals and healthcare systems, and many are going to have to refine their thinking, said Jeff Jones, managing director at Huron Healthcare, a healthcare consulting firm.
An early February bill introduced in the House by Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Penn.) and Joe Heck, MD, (R-Nev.) has once again raised hopes that the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula payment model for Medicare can finally be repealed.
It's been a long time coming, but in early February, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the final rule for the Physician Payments Sunshine Act.
The introduction of health insurance exchanges is generating interest among people who purchase their insurance directly, as well as those who have high deductibles and/or lower levels of overall satisfaction, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2013 Member Health Plan Study.
During the Thursday morning keynote at HIMSS13, the national coordinator for health IT, Farzad Mostashari, MD focused on the nation's broken healthcare system, while delving into a range of topics.
Healthcare was by far the feistiest part of Thursday's HIMSS13 closing session featuring Karl Rove and James Carville.
Former President Bill Clinton's talk Wednesday at the 2013 HIMSS Annual Conference & Exhibition encompassed politics, economics, history, climate change, childhood obesity, health information technology, and even the art of the deal.
Tom Sullivan, editor of Healthcare Finance News' sister publication Government Health IT spoke with national health IT coordinator Farzad Mostashari, MD, about sequestration and the sustainability of Regional Extension Centers and more a day before his keynote at HIMSS13.
Women in a number of counties located primarily in the South and West have higher mortality rates than those in other regions, and the reasons extend beyond access to medical care, according to research published in the March issue of Health Affairs.
Despite the federal government's efforts to foster pricing transparency at hospitals, a new study finds that many hospitals can't provide a price for a common surgical procedure.