The wait is over! The Supreme Court launched its oral argument marathon on Monday to hear the case on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).

Since agreeing in November 2011 to consider several constitutionality issues relating to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments March 26-28 on cases against the legislation. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation released a report in January explaining the issues raised by the cases pending before the Supreme Court and considered the potential effects of the courts decisions.

Source: RadiologyTomosynthesis has been shown to detect more abnormal bony spurs and subchondral cysts than conventional x-ray, demonstrating that tomosynthesis may be more beneficial in diagnosing knee osteoarthritis, according to a study published in the April issue of Radiology.

Members of the KPMG Healthcare & Pharmaceutical Institute, based in Atlanta, discussed the top 10 compliance challenges for meaningful use Stage 1 during a March 21 webinar.

Quality improvement and patient-centered caretwo concepts essential to the health reform effortwill require health IT. Current and future physicians must master the minimal competencies required to use health IT if the healthcare system is to reach its quality and cost containment goals, according to an article in the March edition of Health Affairs.

To avoid payment adjustments, eligible hospitals in their first year of demonstrating meaningful use (MU) in the year immediately preceding any payment adjustment must ensure that the 90-day EHR reporting period ends at least three months before the end of the fiscal year, said Patricia B. Wise, RN, MS, Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), vice president, health information systems, during a virtual briefing hosted by HIMSS.

Data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) show that both large and small hospital vendors found success in the first year of meaningful use attestation, according to market researcher KLAS.

Propelled by government incentives, a desire to improve patient outcomes and the bottom line, sales of EMRs grew 14.2 percent in 2011, according to medical market research company Kalorama Information.