Reimbursement
Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Richard Burr (R-N.C.), along with the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), unveiled on April 19 a bipartisan plan to strengthen and improve nation's drug distribution supply chain.
As the dust settles from the Supreme Court's ruling on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the results of the presidential election and, more recently, the sequester cuts, acute care providers are now turning attention to the looming reimbursement cuts.
Arkansas Governor Mike Beebe has signed a new law expanding Medicaid eligibility through the state's federal-partnership health insurance exchange -- one of the most unusual evolutions in Affordable Care Act policy, if also one HHS hopes will bring insurance to some 250,000 working class Arkansans who otherwise might continue to go uncovered amid the politics of Mediciad expansion.
University Hospitals, a healthcare system in northeast Ohio, has joined up with three smaller health systems in the state to create a new purchasing collaborative to save money on supplies and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of care delivery.
Connecticut's health insurance exchange, Access Health CT, has selected HealthPass and bswift to provide services and technology for a choice of health insurance options to small businesses throughout the state.
Consumer advocates and some lawmakers are promoting a new bill they say would save Medicare $141 billion over the next decade by requiring prescription drug rebates for Medicaid-Medicare eligible patients and low-income Medicare beneficiaries.
Florida Blue, the Sunshine State's largest insurer, has launched a project with data exchange platform Availity and ambulatory electronic health record vendor Greenway that will enable physicians to exchange clinical summaries with the health plan through their EHRs.
Big data offers big promise for the future of medicine, and at the annual TEDMED conference Tuesday in the nation's capital, speakers put forth ideas that included the use "digital traces" and "digital bread crumbs" as ways to help guage a patient's health.
The Premier healthcare alliance, which includes 2,800 hospitals and 93,000 other provider and payer organizations across the country, has partnered with Phytel to automate population health services in order to help its members scale their efforts to improve patient care and adapt to a rapidly changing healthcare system.
Bundled care is touted frequently these days as one of the best ways in healthcare to save money, right reimbursement wrongs and heighten the quality of care. While the model is still being debated within the industry, a recent report indicates that consumers like it.