Reimbursement
Among the pods of debate in Denver on Oct. 3, the issue of healthcare was every bit as fiery as the oft-considered more popular economy, jobs, and the widely-divisive role of government.
The Medicare Strike Force unsealed indictments against 91 people in seven different cities who are accused of fraudulent billing to Medicare to the tune of $429.2 million.
Three years after launching a 750-patient Medicare Advantage collaborative care pilot, Portland, Maine-based independent physician practice NovaHealth and insurer Aetna have shown concrete results in improving care quality and reducing costs. Technology and provider-payer cooperation played a large part in the program's success.
Results of a new national survey conducted by Medicare Today and KRC Research shows that 9 in 10 seniors are satisfied with Medicare Part D prescription drug coverage, up from 78 percent satisfaction when the program was first launched.
The number of Medicare Advantage plans being offered is expected to increase by 7 percent over the next year, from 2,430 currently to 2,600 in 2013, according to a report from Avalere Health.
The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) announced Thursday its definition of high-performing health systems. Leaders of the trade association said they issued the definition to educate legislators and the public about the need for meaningful change to improve patient care.
The number of Medicare Advantage plans being offered is expected to increase next year, along with enrollment, which is a recipe for growth, according to an Avalere Health report.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has discovered errors in its initial calculations in August. As a result, 1,422 hospitals with comparatively high readmission rates will lose slightly more money than they were expecting, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis of the revised penalties. Fifty-five hospitals will lose less than were previously told.
Blue Shield of California and health technology integrator NantHealth announced Tuesday they will co-develop a clinic-based "continuous learning center" (CLC) that will leverage supercomputing systems, high-speed, secure-fiber networks and fact-based genomic data systems, which will allow Blue Shield's ACO partners to provide personalized, molecular-based medicine.
Minnesota gets more grant money, 70 HIX questions from state lawmaker; Nebraska and Hawaii choose minimum benefit levels; and private exchanges on the rise in this week's HIX Digest.