BOSTON--Healthcare leaders should harness the power of data analytics to identify, prioritize and make strategic, operational and clinically actionable changes at the organizational level, said Eugene Kolker, chief data officer at Seattle Children’s and head of the bioinformatics & high-throughput analysis laboratory at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, at Strata Rx 2013.

Non-profit hospitals have to do it every three years to comply with the requirements of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), but probably any hospital or clinic would benefit by conducting a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA).

In today’s transaction-based service model, patients make their own appointments, the care they get varies depending on the provider’s memory and skill level, and it is up to patients to coordinate and manage their own follow-up.

Population health management (PHM) is a broad term that will generate untold millions in consulting fees in the years to come, but if you add “business model” to the back of the term, we start to get closer to how health care will make the transition from transaction to value. Inevitably, this involves capitation and risk assumption.

Few hospitals have developed comprehensive strategies to identify, educate and assist individuals with enrolling in health plans offered through the health insurance exchanges (HIXs). With the Oct. 1 start date for enrollment fast approaching, hospitals and providers should heighten preparations in order to benefit from the financial boost of a new customer base, according to a study from PwC’s Health Research Institute.

The Obama administration is "scrambling" to quickly address a series of "pricing quirks" in the software that will be used for the roughly three dozen federal health insurance exchanges under the Affordable Care Act, according to several insurance executives and sources familiar with the issue, the Wall Street Journal reports.

More than a year after the proposed rule was issued, the FDA released the final rule establishing a unique device identification system for tracking medical devices.

A bill introduced by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I) would expand eligibility for EHR incentive payments to include mental and behavioral health professionals, including psychologists, community mental health centers and psychiatric hospitals.