Policy & Regulations

This channel includes news coverage of healthcare policy and regulations set by Congress, the states, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and medical associations and societies. 

Bold idea floated (and denounced): Close VA facilities, send vets to private-sector providers

The idea was quickly met with expressions of resolve to never let it see the light of day, but it’s out in the open now: A high-level commission has suggested transitioning the Department of Veterans Affairs from a provider network into a Medicare-like payer. 

April 4, 2016

Looking at the ACA, 6 years later

President Obama’s Affordable Care Act (ACA) was signed into law on March 23, 2010, and a recent editorial in the Wall Street Journal examined the law’s impact after six years.

March 25, 2016

7 words heard ’round the football world

“The answer to that is certainly, yes.” With those seven words, the National Football League’s senior VP for health and safety may have just changed the gridiron game for good, and in who knows how many ways. 

March 16, 2016

Organizations urge 90-day MU reporting period for 2016

The College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and 32 other organizations are asking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to shorten the Meaningful Use reporting period for 2016 from 365 to 90 days.

March 16, 2016

Cancer overtakes heart disease as leading cause of death in 22 U.S. states

Due to a sharp decrease in deaths resulting from cardiovascular disease, cancer has narrowed the gap and is challenging for the title of the nation’s number-one cause of mortality, according to research published online by the American Heart Association.

March 15, 2016

Cost controls: Healthcare industry on a dangerous collision course

Two long-standing approaches to keeping healthcare costs down are on a “collision course” that could leave them both ineffective, according to a recent opinion piece in the New England Journal of Medicine. Do we have time to course correct or are we left to simply buckle our seatbelts and brace for impact?  

March 15, 2016

5,500+ new, revised ICD-10 codes in the works for 2017

More than 5,500 diagnosis and procedures codes will be added to the ICD-10 coding system for fiscal year 2017.

March 14, 2016

AMA, other orgs call for rejection of Aetna/Humana merger

The American Medical Association (AMA) has joined forces with the Florida Medical Association and Florida Osteopathic Medical Association, and written a letter to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, calling on her to reject the proposed merger of Aetna and Humana.  

March 14, 2016

Around the web

Cardiovascular Associates of America, backed by Webster Equity Partners, currently includes practices in eight different states. Its partner cardiologists now have preferred access to multiple cloud-based services provided by Athenahealth. 

The American Society of Nuclear Cardiology (ASNC) supports an AMA policy that condemns the use AI to make prior authorization decisions rather than a doctor or clinician.

The past five years have been boom times for AI startups courting venture investors in healthcare, and the good times just keep rolling.

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