UnitedHealthcare has introduced a secure, online electronic bill-payment service that enables consumers to pay their medical bills and manage their healthcare claims and related expenses.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is proposing an emergency review that requires state health insurance exchanges to report suspected or confirmed incidents affecting loss or suspected loss of protected health information within one hour of discovery. The exchanges would be required to notify their Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight state officer, which in turn would notify affected federal agendy data sources.

Health reform researcher Richard Kronick, PhD, will become the new director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality after long-time director Carolyn Clancy, MD, leaves the post later this month.

Allscripts announced the launch of Population Health Analytics, a population health management tool that builds analytics into a clinician’s workflow to improve chronic disease management and reduce readmissions, according to an Aug. 19 announcement.

Apollo Beach, FL, August 19, 2013-- Today, LaunchMed, LLC announced the launch of their end-to-end CMS data handling service, a value added service that is part of the LaunchStar™ ACO Solution, designed for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) participating in the Medicare Shared Savings Program.

With health insurance marketplace enrollment set to launch this fall, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced $67 million in grant awards to 105 Navigator grant applicants who will assist Americans with selecting plans and joining up. The Navigators, trained to provide unbiased information about the new health insurance marketplaces in a culturally competent manner, include qualified private and public groups and the self-employed.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s “Improving Quality Through Clinician Use of Health IT” initiative demonstrated health IT’s positive impact on the delivery of evidence-based care, according to a report that highlighted key findings from 24 projects awarded in 2007.

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), which represents 110,600 U.S. physicians and medical students, officially joined the chorus of healthcare associations urging the Centers for Medicaid & Medicare Services (CMS) to push back the implementation deadlines of Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2. Also, it proposed a revised MU Stage 2 compliance schedule that extends the timeframe for compliance by 12 months.