Medicare

 
Senate confirmation hearing set for Tavenner
April 9, 2013 |
Diana Manos
The acting CMS administrator's hearing comes as lawmakers in Washington are under increasing pressure regarding Medicare and Medicaid budgetary issues.
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States focus on consumer experience in Medicaid modernization
April 8, 2013 |
Anthony Brino
Nearly 50 years after the creation of Medicaid, the program faces steep financial challenges. Modernizing the IT systems underpinning Medicaid promises to usher in a more consumer-friendly era.
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GOP members call for spending increase to cover pre-existing conditions
April 4, 2013 |
Kaiser Health News www.kaiserhealthnews.org

After the Obama administration stopped enrolling new people into the program, some GOP Representatives are saying it should have allocated more money from the beginning.
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ONC HIE workgroup offers interoperability suggestions
April 3, 2013 |
Anthony Brino
Aligning advanced payment models, standardizing HIE-related polices across states and finding ways to bring MU-ineligible providers into HIE programs are some of the Information Exchange Workgroup's recommendations for advancing HIE.
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Federal HIX delays SHOP choice until 2015
April 3, 2013 |
Anthony Brino
CMS said that "operational challenges" and the need for market stabilization require a one year delay of the much-heralded employee choice and premium aggregation service in the federal exchanges.
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Oregon shows costs of putting Medicaid enrollees in private coverage
April 1, 2013 |
Kaiser Health News www.kaiserhealthnews.org

The idea of paying for citizens who qualify for Medicaid to buy private insurance has been in place for more than a decade in Oregon. The results are mixed.
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NC bill would have hospitals post cost info on HIE
March 28, 2013 |
Anthony Brino
A healthcare price transparency bill being considered in the North Carolina Senate would require hospitals to post the prices for the 50 most common care episodes on the NC Health Information Exchange.
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Healthcare far more costly in U.S. than other developed nations
March 28, 2013 |
Chris Anderson
A new report from the International Federation of Health Plans found the greatest cost differences between the U.S. and other countries apply to hospital stays and surgical procedures.
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Here come the HIPAA audits, security expert says
March 27, 2013 |
Diana Manos
Now that the HIPAA final rule kicked in, providers and their business associates should prepare for government agencies to crack down on breaches.
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Q&A: On health data 'we can't dream big enough'
March 25, 2013 |
Tom Sullivan
Pulse8 CEO John Criswell sees plenty of opportunity to harness the information that HIXs and HIEs will have as a means for both bending the cost curve and bettering care quality.
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What ACOs must do to succeed
March 25, 2013 |
Diana Manos
Two words: systemic change. That's according to Lumeris vice president Jim Hansen, who gazes ahead to ACO 2.0.
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ACA at 3: Neither success nor survival a foregone conclusion
March 22, 2013 |
Tom Sullivan
While Karl Rove maintains that the ACA's future is unsettled, healthcare experts are predicting slow but consistent progress. Does the Obama administration have time enough to guarantee the law long-term?
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Editor's Desk: T.W.I.G. Notes
September 28, 2012 |
Tom Sullivan
Surprising poll findings, Kerry's MITCH and integrated care, proposed mobile office at FDA, HIE disaster planning, Obama and Romney face off in NEJM, and a hole in the ACO model.
3 secrets of success for ICD-10 transition
September 26, 2012 |
Carl Natale
University of Utah Hospital's director of health information Connie Tahora shares three elements that have helped her organization travel "quite a long ways down the path" to ICD-10 implementation.
ICD-101: Don't lose sleep over learning ICD-10 coding
September 17, 2012 |
Carl Natale
It looks like the site MedicalBillingandCoding.org is doing a weekly tip post called "ICD 10 Fridays." There are some nice tips for understanding ICD-10 codes and a quiz question at the end.
Editor's Desk: T.W.I.G. Notes
September 7, 2012 |
Tom Sullivan
What the DNC and RNC before it reveal about parties' health IT stance, EHR incentives flirt with $7 billion, and balancing HIE with patient privacy.
No surprise: Fact-checkers finding healthcare flaws in DNC speeches
September 6, 2012 |
Tom Sullivan
Republicans kept fact-checkers busy last week with the RNC and this week Democrats are doing very much the same at the DNC.
One-liner: Health IT in the Democratic platform
September 4, 2012 |
Tom Sullivan
Not unlike the Republicans official platform, the Democrats address health IT but keep the mention of it brief. Is it enough?
Democratic platform passages about health care
September 4, 2012 |
Tom Sullivan
The 2012 Democratic National Platform touts ACA, opposes Republican plans for healthcare.
Editor's Desk: T.W.I.G. Notes
August 31, 2012 |
Tom Sullivan
This Week in Government Health ... the RNC, meaningful use, ICD-10, ICD-11, and health IT on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Update: What fact-checkers are finding about healthcare at the RNC
August 30, 2012 |
Tom Sullivan
Not much is new, for one. Which is to say the GOP is twisting some matters decidedly against Obama and PPACA, but Government Health IT readers have heard them before.
Don’t blink: What health IT means to the GOP
August 29, 2012 |
Tom Sullivan
The official platform makes brief, but dense, mention of electronic health records and patient privacy.
Medicare, Medicaid first two pieces of GOP platform
August 29, 2012 |
Tom Sullivan
Here's what the official GOP platform says about saving medicare for future generations and strengthening Medicaid in the states.
How healthcare figures into this week’s presidential polls
August 23, 2012 |
Tom Sullivan
Among polls published this week, the economy keeps its top spot on the list of voters' priorities while healthcare ranks as important in the increasingly tight presidential race.