Quality and Safety
U.S. healthcare spending was up 3.9 percent in 2010, just slightly more than the 3.8 percent growth seen in 2009, according to numbers released Monday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
Healthcare is costly, especially on an inpatient basis, which is why it is not surprising that an established and growing trend has been the development of outpatient centers.
The Q4 HWS Labor Market Pulse Index (LMPI), a quarterly barometer of local market healthcare workforce fluctuations released Monday, shows a 6 percent uptick in near-term demand for healthcare workers in 30 key U.S. markets.
Social media pundit and Nashua, N.H.-based primary care physician Kevin Pho, MD, regularly shares his views on healthcare issues from the provider perspective. In this Q&A, he takes a look at how healthcare will factor into the presidential election.
The National Public Health and Hospital Institute (NPHHI) was recently awarded a $250,000 grant from the Aetna Foundation for a year long study of best practices in integrated care at safety-net hospitals aimed at improving care coordination for underserved populations.
There are at least two conversations going on in the health care marketplace today, each focused on one of two key questions. One is: How can we achieve the Triple Aim? The other is: Why do they get to do that? (It's not fair! I want more!)
Recently, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius took a look back and recounted some of the department's biggest accomplishments in 2011. From discounting brand name prescriptions for seniors to helping prevent the nearly 2 million heart attacks and strokes every year, the HHS' efforts resulted not only in a healthier America but significant cost savings across the industry.
A federal judge ruled last week to block California's plan to cut Medicaid payments to hospitals by 10 percent.
The United States Justice Department has joined a whistleblower case alleging that a national chain of for-profit hospices violated the False Claims Act by spending millions of taxpayer dollars to care for Medicare recipients in hospice who were not terminally ill.
The National Committee for Quality Assurance announced today an agreement with Dallas-based population health management company Phytel, under which physician practices using the Phytels's care management technologies can automatically meet certain NCQA requirements for recognition as a patient-centered medical home.