The reason for the payouts is a bit fuzzy, but the White House said it has to do with user fees that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services charged to the states, which should have been passed on to enrollees as they sign up for insurance on HealthCare.gov

Independence Blue Cross, the largest medical insurance provider in the Philadelphia area, does not admit to wrongdoing. It was accused in a lawsuit backed by the U.S. Department of Justice of misrepresenting the severity of patient illnesses to juice risk-adjusted Medicare payments.

Analyzing more than 1,500 cases of patients who got sent from an acute-care hospital to an ostensibly more-capable facility, Harvard researchers have found 1 in 4 such transfers could—and probably should—have been avoided. 

A study from the University of Iowa Health Care found that age and gender played a role in self-reported long COVID symptoms, but the recency of a COVID-19 vaccine or booster was not a factor.

“There’s no correlation between the cost of healthcare and the quality you’re getting.”

In March, a U.S. District Court judge agreed with hospital plaintiffs who claimed in a lawsuit that the A-to-F grading system was deceptive, with those that chose to engage in enhanced data sharing receiving higher rankings. Leapfrog has defended its methodology, arguing the grades are constitutionally protected opinions. 

The general public is smiling at local healthcare providers while snarling at federal healthcare agencies, according to a survey report posted Aug. 31 by Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. 

These referrer check-ins can serve as a major source of workflow interruption and inefficiency, experts write in the Journal of the American College of Radiology. 

Children with congenital heart disease outgrow their replacement valves, requiring repeat open-heart surgeries. The Autus can be expanded using a transcatheter procedure.