The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange is calling on the Department of Health & Human Services to adopt its ICD-10 roadmap “to minimize continued disruption to the healthcare industry” caused by the compliance delay.

Sylvia Mathews Burwell, President Obama’s pick to replace Kathleen Sebelius as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sailed through her Senate confirmation with a vote of 78 to 17 in favor of confirming her nomination.

The Senate voted 78-17 to confirm Sylvia Mathews Burwell as the Department of Health & Human Services’ new secretary.

Academic giant Stanford Medical Center in Stanford, California, and ValleyCare Health System, based in Pleasanton, California, have signed a non-binding letter of intent that would make ValleyCare’s two community hospitals and outpatient facilities part of Stanford Hospital & Clinics.

Whether it is the heights of hyperbole or an accurate description may depend on your perspective, but Rick Pollack, executive vice president of the American Hospital Association (AHA) did not mince words in his 10-page letter to outgoing U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius about the many problems with the Office of Inspector General (OIG) getting into the act of reviewing Medicare Part A payment claims for short-stay hospital admissions.

The expansion of health insurance under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) should mean fewer uninsured patients at Disproportionate Share Hospitals (DSHs), but estimates for just how many fewer such patients would need care might have been overly optimistic finds a new study on California hospitals appearing in Health Affairs.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has selected iPatientCare, a Woodbridge, N.J.-based medical informatics company, as a Qualified Physician Quality Reporting System registry that is authorized to assist eligible providers with reporting quality data directly to CMS.

LOUISVILLE, Ky.--For the second year in a row, Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) was ranked as the number one company for its ease of doing business with providers. Humana ranked number one in overall performance among 148 U.S. health insurers based on a review of 2013 claims-payment data conducted by athenahealth, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN).