HHS gives states technical guidance for Medicaid system while some video game companies start to focus on medical field

Modern Healthcare: "HHS will give states financial aid and technical guidance to help them set up information technology systems to streamline enrollment in Medicaid or health insurance exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, according to a news release from the department. HHS proposes that states will be able to receive federal dollars to cover 90% of design and development costs and 75% of operating and maintenance costs of Medicaid eligibility systems. In addition, CMS and the Office of Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight at HHS have made available 'initial technical guidance' to help states with the design, development and implementation of new or improved IT systems for state Medicaid, children's health insurance and the new health insurance exchange programs" (Conn, 11/4).

The Washington Post: "In pockets around the country, some video game companies are veering away from the entertainment industry to focus solely on creating what they call 'serious games.' One company, Breakaway Games in Hunt Valley, an East Coast gaming development hub just outside Baltimore, has switched completely in the past three years to developing only games for training. Its clients include the medical schools at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University. Over the past decade, an entire movement has formed around applying state-of-the-art computer games to new sectors. … Nowhere is this more difficult than in the medical field, where doctors are making critical decisions and responding to unpredictable reactions from the human body. The interplay between these factors has presented serious game developers one of their greatest challenges yet. But as the technology becomes more refined, it is gradually earning the trust of medical professionals" (Wan, 11/5).

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This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.