The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality has published a new fact sheet to align providers to the National Quality Strategy.

Medical industry executives told Congress that they would like to see more legislation allowing sharing of patient data, but legislators expressed reservations about unauthorized access to protected patient information, reported The Hill.

On Wednesday, representatives of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) were once again called upon by House republicans to explain what is being done to combat waste, fraud and abuse in Medicare. Their responses give a glimpse into the agencies current priorities, especially as they affect healthcare providers.

A new Office of Inspector General (OIG) fraud alert warns of two arrangements with clinical laboratories that it considers illegal kickbacks for referrals — specimen processing arrangements and registry arrangements — that are subtle enough that not all ordering physicians who receive the payments may be aware that they are breaking the law.

Financial system transformation is taking center stage as a hospital technology priority as healthcare executives look to remain financially solvent. As such, many struggling hospitals are putting population health and analytics on the back burner, according to a survey from Black Book.

Some of us have been publicly calling for relief in the timelines of the Meaningful Use program since it was created by ARRA in 2009. The recently proposed program changes are thus welcome.  Do they go far enough?

The pressure to control costs and manage risk-based payment systems is changing the reasons why healthcare providers merge finds a new survey of Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) members.

For 2015, the PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Health Research Institute (HRI) is forecasting an end to the five-year contraction in the $2.8 trillion health industry. It predicts medical cost growth of 6.8 percent, up from the 6.5 percent it projected for 2014.