Accountable care organizations going for higher bonuses from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are having to consider various mechanisms to cover losses that may result.
ACOs can set aside cash reserves in escrow, establish a line of credit, have the amount deducted from future fee-for-service payments or
It's hard enough for providers to try to absorb the proposed requirements for stage 2 of Meaningful Use, published in the Federal Register March 7. But the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) keeps on changing the rules--this time by issuing an 11-page list of corrections just three weeks before comments on the proposed rule are due.
WASHINGTON – The Medicare and Medicaid electronic health record program has paid $4.5 billion to 76,612 physicians and hospitals in incentive payments through March 2012.
Of that amount, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services paid out $339.9 million for Medicare eligible providers, according to its latest data.
Assuming that you qualify as an eligible provider under the EHR Incentive Programs administered by CMS, your next step is to register for the Medicare or Medicaid program.
The U.S. healthcare system's lopsided delivery costs compared to the rest of the world is the primary driver behind the nation's long-term budget deficits, the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has concluded.
The timeline for healthcare organizations to convert to the ICD-10 coding system will likely be delayed one year--to Oct. 1, 2014--U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced Monday. The delay is part of a proposed rule, set to be published next week in the Federal Register, that would create a unique health plan
Nine months after All Island Gastroenterology and Liver Associates in Malverne, N.Y., went live with its electronic medical record system, practice administrator Michaela Faella realized things had not gone as smoothly as planned.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today announced its long-awaited list of 27 Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) under the Medicare Shared Savings Program, as well as five Advance Payment ACOs, both beginning April 1.
A strategic plan is crucial to the success of an organization's IT, but today's healthcare landscape is calling for a more patient-centered approach to planning for information technology. In fact, Sue Sutton, president and CEO of Tower Strategies, believes the future of IT planning should focus on an inclusive approach -- all while
The timing of ICD-10 may still be up in the air, but eventually, the transition will call for myriad changes, some of which organizations should consider outsourcing, and some they should not.
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court's decision on the future of the health reform law will likely ripple through the political atmosphere around the elections and the direction of health-related stocks in the market no matter which way the justices bend.
Pharmacy giant Walgreens and pharmacy network operator Surescripts jointly announced the launch of a new interoperability initiative this week that enables Walgreens' pharmacies and retail health clinics to share patient data directly to physicians electronically to improve the coordination of care.
Solo practitioners and small physician practices finally are jumping onto the electronic health record bandwagon, for the first time adopting EHR systems at a greater rate than larger medical groups.
The Meaningful Use incentive program is the main driver for the increase of electronic health records by radiology therapy departments, according to a new study released by IMV Medical Information Division, a marketing research and consulting firm specializing in medical imaging. According to the study, two-thirds of radiology therapy sites have EHRs or complete patient records in their oncology information systems, an increase from just over 50 percent five years ago.
The new survey by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) concluding that 5 percent of the population account for half of all healthcare spending drew a lot of headlines but contained few surprises.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will hold a National Provider Call on March 29 from 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. ET to discuss general topics related to the agency's Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.
By Marla Durben Hirsch
Stage 2 of Meaningful Use may do more than spur the adoption of EHRs and the growth of health information exchange (HIE). It could change the way that providers regard their patient records, a panel of experts said during a roundtable discussion hosted by the National e-health Collaborative, a public-private partnership established by a grant from the Office of the National Coordinator (ONC) tofoster national HIE.
Despite projected goals of saving $400 million in three years of Shared Savings and $1.1 billion in five years for the Pioneer Program, accountable care organizations (ACO) encounter skeptics on whether the financial benefits will outweigh the initial start-up costs and investments.
"It's far from clear who the winners are in the ACO,"
With public health measures receiving a higher profile in Meaningful Use Stage 2, government agencies are struggling to connect healthcare providers online to public health agencies at the state and local levels. To some extent, this connectivity may depend on the nascent health information exchanges (HIEs) evolving across the country, officials of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said at the Health Information Management and Systems Society (HIMSS) conference in Las Vegas last week.
WASHINGTON – The Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT hopes to see “really rapid progress” this year on the building blocks that will promote health information exchange, such as provider directories, certificates to assure identification and rules of the road for the nationwide health information (NwHIN) Exchange.
Healthcare access, cost, quality and outcomes can vary greatly from one community to the next, both within states and across states, depending on the performance of the healthcare system available to residents, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund Commission on a High Performance Health System.
With Stage 2 waiting in the wings, the focus is now shifting onto the electronic capture of health information and fostering data exchange at points of care transitions, said Shahid Shah, software analyst and author of the blog, The Healthcare IT Guy And unlike meaningful use Stage 1, Stage 2 is looking to "raise the bar" and require true interoperability.
Researchers for a study on the use of electronic health records have issued a response to public criticism they received on the study from Farzad Mostashari, the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
At the HIT Policy Committee meeting on March 7, and in a blog post, Mostashari expressed strong disagreement over the study published in the March issue
On Feb. 23, CMS released the much anticipated proposed rule on the Stage 2 requirements that health care providers must meet to achieve "meaningful use" of certified electronic health records under the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.
The proposed rule covers a broad array of issues, including:
