Reimbursement

The American Medical Association has sent a letter to the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services detailing the federal regulations that physicians consider most onerous and offering suggestions on how to improve them.

The vast majority of CIOs responding to the survey conducted in mid-March by the College of Health Information Management Executives (CHIME) expect their organizations will achieve meaningful use of electronic health records within Stage 1 and get funding under the HITECH portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

At the Health IT Policy Committee meeting Wednesday morning, Farzad Mostashari, MD, the new national coordinator for health information technology, said he will listen attentively to stakeholder interests and is aware of the tensions among them.

The Department of Health and Human Services has announced a new program, developed under the Affordable Care Act, that's aimed at eliminating medical errors and reducing healthcare costs on a national scale.

Community Health Systems officials say a lawsuit filed by Tenet Healthcare that claims CHS overbilled Medicare by $280 billion from 2006-2009 is 'baseless' and shows Tenet is engaged in a 'scorched earth' defense of CHS' hostile takeover bid launched in early December.

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) recently introduced a bill that they say would curtail fraud, but opponents say its value is dubious.

In response to the April 7 Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommendation that medical practitioners who use substantially higher levels of advanced diagnostic imaging services receive Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approval before being able to provide those services, the Imaging e-Ordering Coalition encourages Medicare officials to instead look to existing clinical decision support tools to reduce costs, increase efficiency, support appropriate use, and improve quality of care in diagnostic imaging.

Some New Jersey lawmakers have threatened to exclude Medicaid spending from 2012 state budget negotiations, if they don't get more details from Gov. Chris Christie's administration on plans to save $300 million in the program.

The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) on April 8 named Farzad Mostashari, MD, to replace David Blumenthal, MD as national coordinator for health information technology.

Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) introduced legislation Thursday to make doctors' Medicare claims data public for the first time.