Reimbursement

Aiming to single out high-potential health IT startups and help enable their "rapid development and growth," Healthbox is a new accelerator program that offers support for seed-stage companies that can chart the "complex transition into the digital age."

A new study from Humana and the Wisconsin Health Information Exchange (WHIE) shows that using health information exchanges in emergency departments results in improved provider efficiencies and health plan cost savings.

MedHOK, which develops cloud-based care management and compliance software, has partnered with New York County Health Services Review Organization (NYCHSRO)/MedReview to help health plans drive improvements in their HEDIS scores.

Continuing their crusade to make the congressional super committee aware of the repercussions of how cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will impact the skilled nursing facility industry, SNF advocates have released an analysis by Avalere Health that finds if more cuts are made, the industry's operating margin will be zilch.

Healthcare providers will be able to apply to participate in one or more of the initial four models to test the use of bundled payments and their incentives for improving patient care and their outcomes, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Consumer driven health plans continued their growth in the past year, though their growth was at a slower rate than in the past, according to preliminary results from the 2011 UBA Health Plan Survey conducted by United Business Advisors.

WellPoint announced today it has completed its acquisition of CareMore Health Group, a provider of Medicare Advantage plans and Special Needs Plans designed for the chronically ill in select California, Nevada and Arizona markets.

Much of the focus in Washington has been on fixing Social Security's retirement system, but the disability system is in much worse shape. The trust fund that supports disability benefits will run out of money by 2017, according to new estimates.

Ignoring months of protests, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced Friday the next steps for an expansion of a competitive bidding program designed to help lower costs for quality durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics and supplies.

Quality improvements and lower costs have been touted as benefits of hospital-physician alignment, but such results are not guaranteed says a briefing released by the Center for Studying Health System Change (HSC), a nonpartisan health policy research organization.