Reimbursement

As many as 1.5 million more Medicare beneficiaries now have access to coordinated care with the formation of 123 new accountable care organizations as of Jan. 1, the Health and Human Services Department has announced.

Physicians are getting a three-month reprieve from Congress. Included in the bipartisan two-year budget deal to fund the government is a delay until March of a scheduled 24 percent Medicare payment cut combined with a 0.5 percent pay increase. The president is expected to sign the legislation.

A Medicaid eligibility verification project has come to a partial stop in Illinois, amid one of the largest expansions in the program's history.

Bill Marshall, of Pega Healthcare Solutions, sees similarities between the problems faced by health insurance exchanges and tthe lessons learned by successful mHealth companies.

The new budget deal passed by lawmakers last week doesn't restore funding to various government discretionary programs that support social services - such as healthcare programs for the homeless. And that's likely to lead to higher healthcare spending and increased charity care at hospitals.

Many of the accountable care organizations in the U.S. are hospital or primary care provider networks banning together to provide care. A group of federally-qualified health centers in the Minneapolis area has broken the mold by creating the first safety-net ACO.

Doctors are getting a three-month reprieve from Congress. Included in the bipartisan two-year budget deal to fund the government is a delay until March of a scheduled 24 percent Medicare payment cut and a 0.5 percent pay increase.

Planning for ICD-10 is overwhelming, but attempting the transition without a well-organized plan could be catastrophic for your organization. Here are five steps to help make your ICD-10 plan more manageable.

The Obama Administration tacked a 13th hardship exemption onto the Affordable Care Act before the end of year, offering people with cancelled plans relief from the individual mandate and expanding eligibility for catastrophic plans.

A recent study in the Annals of Emergency Medicine suggested that the insurance coverage expansion provisions of the Affordable Care Act might impact the bottom line of emergency departments across the country in a positive way, but that doesn't mean EDs will be flush.