Reimbursement

The key to a successful wellness program lies in the ability to reimburse people for engaging in healthy activities, like going to a fitness center. But health plans, insurers and employers have long struggles with how to properly reimburse a workout.

Minnesota-based IT company's platform allows health plans, employers to schedule reimbursements for health club visits.

4medica, provider of a cloud and SaaS-based clinical integration platform, announced Wednesday it will be joining forces with Kodak to help hospitals and physicians efficiently digitize clinical data.

Over the last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued proposed changes that will update payment policies and rates for physicians, dialysis facilities and for services to Medicare beneficiaries in hospital outpatient departments and decrease Medicare payments to home health agencies.

In its June Health Tracking Poll, Kaiser Family Foundation found that Americans generally do not have confidence in Congress or private insurers to keep Medicare financially sound.

Louisiana's Making Medicaid Better initiative announced that it had received proposals from 12 separate entities to become coordinated care networks under the state's effort to remake its insurance program for the poor. Among the 12, three companies proposed a shared savings network model while nine proposed a pre-paid network structure.

Finding ways to create a payment model that rewards high-quality outcomes, reduces avoidable costs and protects payer and provider margins is the ultimate goal of those working to reform the healthcare system today. That was the focus of a recent education session, "Bridging the Payer and Provider Gap: Creating a Shared-Savings Payment Model for Increased Quality and Efficiency," at HFMA's ANI conference and exhibition held at the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando, Fla., June 26-29.

A 2010 Government Accountability Office survey of physicians who serve children found that physicians have a harder time referring their pediatric patients in Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to specialty care than they do when they refer children covered by private insurance.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) took the first steps to implement an Affordable Care Act provision that cuts red tape in the healthcare system and saves an estimated $12 billion over the next ten years.