AMA Offers Education And Online Tools To Cope With MACRA
The American Medical Association (AMA) recently released many online tools that are aimed to help physicians through pending Medicare payment and delivery changes. This will improve their opportunity for success under the new program that will come into effect in 2017. It is reported that the new online tools will help physicians in their preparation…
Federal Officials Say Subsidies Will Help Counter Rising ACA Costs
State officials say that the premiums for Affordable Care Act plans will increase by an average of 19% in the state of Florida in the next year. Federal officials, highlighting the continuing political debate over the final impact of the healthcare act, countered that taxpayer funded subsidies, that most of the residents of Florida with…
The Impact Of EHR Adoption On Health Care
A research team led by AnneMarie Walker-Czyz, EdD, RN, recently conducted a study on the quality of care provided to the patients and on clinical workflow before and after EHR adoption. The study revealed that EHR implementation helped healthcare staffs to improve the quality of care they provide to patients and also improved clinical workflows.…
CMS Reimbursement Scheme For ACOs Under MIPS
In the next few months, CMS will announce a final rule on implementing MACRA. Some Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) have already started to analyze the new value-based reimbursement plans. Under the proposed changes, only some of the ACOs will be able to qualify as Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM), where others will be covered under…
Democrats Demand FDA And CMS To Submit Report On Theranos
The health technology startup, Theranos, face another major challenge, as the Democrats have demanded the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to submit their investigation details on the project. In the letters that were sent to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and CMS Acting Administrator Andrew Slavitt, the…
Department Of Justice Arrests Hundreds For Health Care Fraud
The Department of Justice recently published the results of their largest takedown on Medicare fraud. Almost 301 individuals were arrested in the process and the total frauds accumulated to approximately 900 million in fraudulent Medicare claims. Medicare Fraud Strike Force, an entity formed with the combined attempts of several federal agencies including DOJ and HHS,…
‘A Bill You Can Understand’ Challenge by HHS
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced a new initiative, namely ‘A Bill You Can Understand’, in order to simplify the medical billing process and help patients understand what they are paying for. Partnering with several key players in the health industry, HHS expects that this challenge will improve the way a…
ONC Says Almost All Healthcare Units In The Country Are Using Certified EHR
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) released a survey data in their recently held Annual Meet, which says that almost all hospitals in the United States have adopted certified EHR systems. This is estimated to be around nine times the data released by the American Hospital Association (AHA) Information Technology…
Medical Billing Fraud Allegations – BMC Would Pay $1.1m
Boston Medical Centre (BMC) and two physician practice organizations working under it were spotted for medical billing fraud allegations. According to the reports, they have now agreed to pay a sum of $1.1 million as compensation. Responding to the news, an official said that issues like abuse and waste in Medicare and Medicaid and medical…
CBO Says Federal Deficit-GDP Ratio Likely To Rise This Year
Towards the end of January, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) let out their annual report on Budget and Economic Outlook. CBO is a congressional agency of non-partisan nature, which primarily serves as the economic and budgetary analysis resource to the Capitol. Aside from reporting on monitored economic and budgetary trends in wide areas of concern,…
