The Consumer Partnership for eHealth (CPeH), a nationwide coalition of more than 50 consumer, patient and labor organizations, released a plan addressing disparities in Stage 3 of the EHR incentive program.

A bill requiring hospitals to provide public pricing information on 140 common medical procedures and services was signed into law in North Carolina.

The Medical Group Management Association officially weighed in on the Meaningful Use (MU) program, urging the Department of Health and Human Services to institute an indefinite moratorium on penalties for physicians who successfully met MU Stage 1 requirements.

UnitedHealthcare has introduced a secure, online electronic bill-payment service that enables consumers to pay their medical bills and manage their healthcare claims and related expenses.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is proposing an emergency review that requires state health insurance exchanges to report suspected or confirmed incidents affecting loss or suspected loss of protected health information within one hour of discovery. The exchanges would be required to notify their Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight state officer, which in turn would notify affected federal agendy data sources.

Health reform researcher Richard Kronick, PhD, will become the new director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality after long-time director Carolyn Clancy, MD, leaves the post later this month.

With health insurance marketplace enrollment set to launch this fall, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced $67 million in grant awards to 105 Navigator grant applicants who will assist Americans with selecting plans and joining up. The Navigators, trained to provide unbiased information about the new health insurance marketplaces in a culturally competent manner, include qualified private and public groups and the self-employed.

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), which represents 110,600 U.S. physicians and medical students, officially joined the chorus of healthcare associations urging the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) to push back the implementation deadlines of Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2. Also, it proposed a revised MU Stage 2 compliance schedule that extends the timeframe for compliance by 12 months.