PHILADELPHIA, March, 4, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) has announced that The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has earned accreditation as a Level 2 Accountable Care Organization (ACO).

South San Francisco, CA – March 4, 2015 – First Databank (FDB), the leading provider of clinical drug knowledge that helps improve medication-related decisions and patient outcomes, today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Polyglot Systems to be the primary distributor of Polyglot’s proprietary Meducation® simplified patient medication instructions to the hospital, ambulatory and pharmacy markets in the US and Canada.

Mobile health tools can lead to improved adherence to chronic disease management, according to a study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Four hospital rating systems aimed at consumers vary in their conclusions on how facilities are performing because each uses its own methodology.

Patients who receive non-emergent medical care in a hospital outpatient department are more likely to be minority, poorer and have more severe chronic conditions than patients treated in physician offices, according to an American Hospital Association report.

The Department of Health and Human Services is seeking $92 million to fund the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT as part of its 2016 budget proposal, Health Data Management reports.

CMS is asking for comments through March 16 to test primary care models and move toward more value-based payments instead of the traditional fee-for-service approach.

Despite federal government claims to protect the security and privacy of medical records, officials have rarely penalized hospitals, physicians and health insurance companies, ProPublica reports.