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Medicare cuts to doctors payments go into effect today

Starting today, doctors face a 21 percent cut in their reimbursements from Medicare based on a federal budget law that sets physican payments based on other economic factors. In past years, Congress has routinely waived such cuts. The House passed a bill to again postpone the cuts but a similar attempt in the Senate stalled last week.

1 Mar 2010

Amerigroup introduces long-term care program to address complex health concerns

Amerigroup Corporation today announced that its Tennessee health plan began offering long-term care (LTC) services to approximately 4,000 existing middle Tennessee members through the state's TennCare CHOICES in LTC program.

1 Mar 2010

Elsevier to present tactical solutions for advancing healthcare quality at HIMSS 2010

Advancing healthcare quality to help improve patient outcomes and economic efficiency continues to be a primary focus in 2010 for Elsevier, the leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information. During HIMSS 2010 (Atlanta, GA, March 1-3), Elsevier Clinical Decision Support will feature solutions that directly impact the quality of care, including evidence-based clinical content and tools; interdisciplinary documentation, planning and guidelines; drug decision support; interactive skills and procedures; data mining and outcomes analysis; and eLearning.

1 Mar 2010

Axolotl celebrates 15 years of software development and HIE implementation

Axolotl Corp., the nationwide leader in health information exchange (HIE) services and solutions, celebrates fifteen successful years of software development and HIE implementation. Since its founding in 1995, Axolotl has been providing advanced Clinical Networking™ solutions to meet the diverse and changing needs of physicians, hospitals, regional health information organizations (RHIOs) and statewide HIEs to achieve interoperability across entire medical trading areas.

1 Mar 2010

Growth rate among non-radiologists who own/lease PET equipment is on the rise: Study

Just as with computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the growth rate among non-radiologists who own or lease positron emission tomography (PET) equipment is also on the rise, contributing significantly to the ongoing issues surrounding self-referral and unnecessary utilization of imaging in the United States, according to a study published in the March issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology (www.jacr.org)

1 Mar 2010

Senate fails to repeal Medicare physician payment formula

A Medicare meltdown now seems certain, as the U.S. Senate has left early for the weekend, abandoning seniors, military families and baby boomers. The Senate failed to repeal the Medicare physician payment formula that will cause a drastic 21 percent payment cut to physicians who care for Medicare and TRICARE patients.

28 Feb 2010

Republicans press campaign against reconciliation; Mccain seek to strip Medicare out of health bill

Republicans and Democrat hit the Sunday talk shows today to debate whether a complex congressional process called 'reconciliation' should be used to consider a major overhaul of the U.S. health care system. Reconciliation is normally used for 'taxing and spending and reducing deficits,' said Sen.

28 Feb 2010

Aetna.com: Most visited health insurance website

The recently redesigned Aetna.com is a hit with web surfers, who made it the most visited website among health insurers in the fourth quarter of 2009. In fact, 20 percent of Americans who visited a health insurance website during the quarter visited an Aetna site, according to “The Online Health Insurance Landscape,” an independent online audience measurement of health insurance websites recently released by comScore.

27 Feb 2010

Two Atlanta-based nursing homes and their principals to pay the U.S. and several states $14M

Atlanta-based Mariner Health Care Inc. and SavaSeniorCare Administrative Services LLC, as well as their principals, Leonard Grunstein, Murray Forman and Rubin Schron, have agreed to pay the United States and several states $14 million, the Justice Department announced today.

27 Feb 2010

MSKIC accomplishes Obama's challenge by leveraging technology to health information sharing

Musculoskeletal Imaging Consultants announces release of “Inside Business with Fred Thompson” documentary. MSKIC accomplishes Obama challenge of “more for less” by leveraging technology and bypassing obstructions to health information sharing.

27 Feb 2010

Blacks less likely to know they have atrial fibrillation or about use of warfarin

A large nationwide study that includes neurologists from Mayo Clinic has found that blacks are substantially less likely than whites to know that they have atrial fibrillation or to use warfarin, the most common treatment for the condition. Atrial fibrillation, an abnormal heart rhythm, significantly increases risk of stroke. Warfarin is known to reduce that risk.

27 Feb 2010

Frequent error in medicine occurs nearly one out of three times a patient is referred to specialist: Study

The most frequent error in medicine seems to occur nearly one out of three times a patient is referred to a specialist. A new study found that nearly a third of patients age 65 and older referred to a specialist are not scheduled for appointments and therefore do not receive the treatment their primary care doctor intended.

27 Feb 2010

Hospital Roundup: Recession takes toll on NY hospital, investigation of heart surgeries in Maryland and California's soaring fees

The New York Times: Harlem's North General hospital may fold. Despite "often successful" efforts by "Harlem's civic, political and religious leaders … to get more money and more state subsidies to keep it going," the hospital may not survive this period of general "economic malaise." The hospital serves many low-income and uninsured patients in addition to middle-income patients. A rehabilitation center operated by a city-run hospital appears to be eyeing its location for an expansion as hospital officials consider restructuring and linking up with partners (Hartocollis, 2/25).

27 Feb 2010

Health Policy Research Roundup: Length of hospital stays, analyses of Obama's reform proposals

Archives Of Internal Medicine: Hospital Cost Of Care, Quality Of Care, And Readmission Rates - This study compares patients treated for pneumonia and congestive heart failure (CHF) and finds that high-cost hospitals don't always deliver better care. The researchers, who based their analysis on the data from 3,146 hospitals in the 2004 to 2006 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR), report that "risk-adjusted costs of care for CHF and pneumonia varied widely between hospitals, although hospital cost-of-care patterns seemed stable over time and correlated across conditions."

27 Feb 2010

Federal officials focus on radiation practices at Florida clinic; Medical scan makers announce new efforts to prevent mistakes

Medicare regulations require that when patients receive some types of highly specialized cancer treatments, their radiation oncologist must be on site. But The New York Times reports that federal officials are investigating a Florida cancer clinic that billed Medicare for such treatments while the doctors were absent, sometimes on overseas trips.

27 Feb 2010

Federal officials seek to root out financial and Medicare fraud

The head of the U.S. Department of Justice's criminal division told a gathering of criminal defense lawyers on Thursday that the division was using tools 'not often seen in white collar cases' to combat financial fraud," which includes Medicare.

27 Feb 2010

BestHealthcareRates.com to merge with Parasol Financial & Insurance Solutions

BestHealthcareRates.com announced a business merger with Parasol Financial & Insurance Solutions. The joint company will adopt the name Parasol and will provide an expanded portfolio of financial and insurance products, including life, Medicare and income disability coverage for individuals and groups.

27 Feb 2010

Colorado city a model for low-cost, high quality care, series details

Colorado Public News/Los Angeles Times presents a series of stories about Grand Junction Colorado which delivers some of the best and lowest-cost health care in the nation.

26 Feb 2010

Criticism, passion emerge at health care summit

NPR interviewed Rep. Dave Camp, ranking Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee. Camp said: "We were able to at least be heard and have some exposure to the ideas that we've been promoting for a long time. And the president did finally say in the close that we do have ideas that lower costs in insurance and that — do it without increasing taxes. And we don't cut Medicare. And we don't have new mandates in our proposals. So this is really the first opportunity we've had to really focus not only our colleagues and the president, but also the American people on the proposals we've had" (Siegel, 2/25).

26 Feb 2010

House votes to extend COBRA benefits for a month, Bunning stalls Senate action

After the House passed a month-long extension of COBRA and other benefits for laid-off workers, the Senate Thursday did not follow suit, "jeopardizing unemployment benefits scheduled to expire over the weekend," The Associated Press reports.

26 Feb 2010

Medicare News and Research

Medicare cuts to doctors payments go into effect today

Amerigroup introduces long-term care program to address complex health concerns

Elsevier to present tactical solutions for advancing healthcare quality at HIMSS 2010

Axolotl celebrates 15 years of software development and HIE implementation

Growth rate among non-radiologists who own/lease PET equipment is on the rise: Study

Senate fails to repeal Medicare physician payment formula

Republicans press campaign against reconciliation; Mccain seek to strip Medicare out of health bill

Aetna.com: Most visited health insurance website

Two Atlanta-based nursing homes and their principals to pay the U.S. and several states $14M

MSKIC accomplishes Obama's challenge by leveraging technology to health information sharing

Blacks less likely to know they have atrial fibrillation or about use of warfarin

Frequent error in medicine occurs nearly one out of three times a patient is referred to specialist: Study

Hospital Roundup: Recession takes toll on NY hospital, investigation of heart surgeries in Maryland and California's soaring fees

Health Policy Research Roundup: Length of hospital stays, analyses of Obama's reform proposals

Federal officials focus on radiation practices at Florida clinic; Medical scan makers announce new efforts to prevent mistakes

Federal officials seek to root out financial and Medicare fraud

BestHealthcareRates.com to merge with Parasol Financial & Insurance Solutions

Colorado city a model for low-cost, high quality care, series details

Criticism, passion emerge at health care summit

House votes to extend COBRA benefits for a month, Bunning stalls Senate action

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