For people who qualify for subsidies to buy health coverage under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the law led not only to expansions in the insured population but better access to care and more diagnoses of conditions like hypertension and high cholesterol.

People who are “food insecure” and also have chronic conditions can be kept out of the hospital and the emergency department (ED) when meals are delivered to their homes—particularly meals that have been tailored to their needs by a dietitian.

AAAHC recently honored a primary care center in Arizona and a surgical center in Connecticut for their exemplary work in quality improvement studies. The prestigious Bernard A. Kershner Innovations in Quality Improvement Award recognizes AAAHC-accredited organizations that successfully implemented meaningful changes in their operations to boost quality of care, patient safety and overall efficiency.

The hype around blockchain had reached new heights at HIMSS18 in Las Vegas, much of it centered on how an immutable, decentralized ledger of transactions and exchanges could be used to solve issues around interoperability and data sharing. Jason Goldwater, MA, MPA, senior director of the CedarBridge Group suggested it could streamline another headache for healthcare professionals: quality reporting.

The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) in Baltimore has been cited for several violations on patient rights and hospital regulations after leaving a patient wearing only a hospital gown at a bus stop in January.

Of the nine categories included in the 2019 Best Medical Schools rankings released by U.S. News and World Report, Harvard University either tied or placed alone at No. 1 in eight of them—the sole exception being the primary care category.

Patients with disabilities or living in poverty have poorer health outcomes and higher costs. Theoretically, alternative payment models (APMs) could encourage providers to better coordinate care for vulnerable populations and improve their outcomes—but they also have the potential to harm these patients, according to Karen Joynt Maddox, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis.

The House and Energy Commerce Committee has sent letters to CMS and four hospital accreditation organizations (AOs), including the Joint Commission, asking for more information on how the entities conduct surveys and why there’s been a disconnect between their results and what state survey agencies find.