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.

CAPP provides ACO web guides

The Council of Accountable Physician Practices (CAPP) has launched a new initiative to provide the public, media and policymakers with resources and information about the value of care coordination and accountable care to national healthcare reform.

CMS issues long-awaited ACO guidelines

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued its long-awaited Proposed Rule for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), which would provide the regulatory framework for these organizations.

NEJM: Berwick weighs in on ACO NPRM

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) took a major step toward establishing accountable care organizations (ACOs) by issuing a notice of proposed rule-making that will define how physicians, hospitals and others can adopt this new organization form, wrote Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), in a perspective paper published March 31 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

CMS updates EHR FAQs

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted new frequently asked questions (FAQs) concerning the latest information on the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs.

N.C. hospital taps Ingenix coding tools

Wayne Memorial Hospital, a 316-bed health care facility serving Goldsboro, N.C., is implementing Ingenixs computer-assisted coding (CAC) tools to increase medical coding accuracy and compliance.

Texas Med Center signs Wolters Kluwer for documentation

The Medical Center of Plano, a 427-bed acute care facility in Plano, Texas, has selected Wolters Kluwer Healths ProVation MD software for gastroenterology procedure documentation and coding.

AJMC: High-deductible health plans could reduce healthcare spending

High-deductible health plans could potentially lower healthcare spending, but they might also crimp preventive care, according to research published in the March edition of the American Journal of Managed Care.

AIM: Adverse event reporting is on the rise

Although the FDA's Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) database has been in existence since 1969, more than half of the incidents in it were received in the past decade, according to an article published online March 28 in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Around the web

The American College of Cardiology has sent a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that outlines some of the organization’s central priorities and concerns. 

One product is being pulled from the market, and the other is receiving updated instructions for use.

If the Trump administration continues taking a laissez-faire stance toward AI—including AI used in healthcare—why not let the states go it alone on regulating the technology?