Economics

This channel highlights factors that impact hospital and healthcare economics and revenue. This includes news on healthcare policies, reimbursement, marketing, business plans, mergers and acquisitions, supply chain, salaries, staffing, and the implementation of a cost-effective environment for patients and providers.

Tenn. hospital digitizes anesthesia data

Healthcare providers at River Park Hospital, a 125-bed full service hospital in McMinnville, Tenn., are using Shareable Inks conversion technology to document anesthesia cases.

AMA cites 'burdensome' federal regs

The American Medical Association (AMA) voiced concerns over burdensome federal regulations in a letter sent last week to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).

Report: Primary care, robust reporting power ACOs

Accountable care organizations (ACOs) must be built on a foundation of primary care, must have robust reporting capabilities and must ensure prompt rewards for high-quality, efficient care, according to an April 14 Commonwealth Fund report, High Performance Accountable Care: Building on Success and Learning from Experience.

HHS aims to lower Medicaid costs, add flexibility

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has introduced four initiatives designed to offer states more flexibility to coordinate care for Medicaid and Medicare recipients while helping to reduce costs.

Cooper gets coding assist from MedQuist

Cooper University Hospital of Camden, N.J., has awarded MedQuist Holdings a contract to provide computer-assisted coding technology and outsourced coding services.

VA, MedVirginia HIE pilot is under way

The Richmond VA Medical Center is partnering with MedVirginia on a Department of Veterans Affairs pilot project to improve delivery of veterans' health information. 

PAF: Medicare assistance requests rose 30% in 2010

The Patient Advocate Foundation (PAF), a national non-profit organization that seeks to safeguard patients through mediation, reported a 30 percent increase in requests for assistance from Medicare beneficiaries in 2010 compared with 2009.

HHS puts medical errors in crosshairs

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will invest as much as $1 billion in a national collaboration that aims to save 60,000 lives during the next three years by eliminating preventable injuries and complications in patient care, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced at a press conference today.

Around the web

The American College of Cardiology has shared its perspective on new CMS payment policies, highlighting revenue concerns while providing key details for cardiologists and other cardiology professionals. 

As debate simmers over how best to regulate AI, experts continue to offer guidance on where to start, how to proceed and what to emphasize. A new resource models its recommendations on what its authors call the “SETO Loop.”

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, said the clinical community needs to combat health misinformation at a grassroots level. He warned that patients are immersed in a "sea of misinformation without a compass."

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