While the complexity of medicine may never fully allow pure commodity economics in healthcare services, certain services, such as diagnostic imaging and laboratory tests, do lend themselves toward being shopped for as commodities. In theory, this should make such services more sensitive to price pressure. But that is not what San Francisco healthcare technology firm Castlight Health found when it examined four such services: low-back MRI, head CT, lipid panel and preventive primary care visit.

Massachusetts, the first state to enact a universal health insurance coverage law, may also be among the first to experience the political upheaval that could come with healthcare reform driven changes.

Creating an accurate system for evaluating hospital quality for payments, as well as spotting areas where savings could be achieved and deaths prevented, is becoming increasingly important to health system leaders. However, the current list of hospital-acquired conditions (HACs) that Medicare uses to set payments for hospitals, may be too narrow finds an analysis of discharge codes conducted by the Premier Inc. healthcare alliance.

News media and pundits have largely focused on what House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor’s Virginia Republican primary loss to David Brat means for immigration reform, but Cantor was also heavily involved in drafting the Republican alternative to the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ ICD-10 testing week conducted in March proved successful, with the agency accepting 89 percent of the test claims and some regions reporting acceptance rates as high as 99 percent.

June 10, 2014, Boston, Massachusetts – Press Ganey today announced the acquisition of the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI®), the leading quality improvement and nurse engagement tool developed by the American Nurses Association (ANA) and managed by The University of Kansas School of Nursing. The acquisition strengthens Press Ganey’s ability to empower nurses and nursing leaders in their mission to reduce patient suffering and improve the patient experience.

As of the end of May, 447 eligible professionals and eight eligible hospitals have attested to Meaningful Use Stage 2, Elisabeth Myers, policy and outreach lead at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, told the Health IT Policy Committee during its virtual meeting on June 10.

Thanks to robust IT practices and aggressive use of medications and risk-reduction therapies, six Banner Health facilities in Arizona received the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold-Plus Quality Achievement Award.