Reimbursement
Many questions remain on how specific details of the Affordable Care Act will be resolved, but one significant trend is clear: the shift toward risk sharing among patients, providers and insurers is well underway.
Many healthcare executives fall prey to two common misconceptions about data breaches: that the only companies making headlines for lax data security are big retailers like Target and that the biggest culprits are teenage hackers or sophisticated teams working in China or Eastern Europe.
Insurer premiums in the second year of public exchanges look financially wise to credit experts, although there are also some double-edged swords.
Even before federal approval is won for the experimental program, insurers in one large state are ready to start selling exchange plans to Medicaid beneficiaries.
After the botched rollout of insurance exchanges last year, the federal government is trying to get the technology right for what promises to be just as big a consumer turnout this fall.
A quarter of the nation's hospitals, those with the worst rates of hospital-acquired conditions, will lose 1 percent of every Medicare payment for a year starting in October. The sanctions, estimated to total $330 million over a year, kick in at a time when most infections measured in hospitals are on the decline, but still too common.
A new start-up is hoping to become the largest enabler of primary care in the country within six years, by letting independent docs start ACO networks and stay free of the hassle of hospital systems and payers.
Aetna is extending its ACO network and health plan offerings in America's heartland, trying to meet promises of bringing accountable care to the commercially-insured masses in competition with United and WellPoint.
Any day now, the Supreme Court will issue its decision on the "contraception mandate" and could add more complexity to health plan administration, while another dispute may spell even more trouble.
As ObamaCare launched last fall you'll recall 16 states started their own exchanges.